City that Never Sleeps

[TheSmartOne]

“Move? Are you crazy?” Donnie said, giving his older brother a look as if Raph had just suggested they take a trip to the moon. “Do you have any idea how much work that would involve? We'd have to get everything out of the lair, fix it all, completely rewire our electrical grid-” Donnie paused. He'd pretty much described his 'after we get the water to stop flooding the lair' to-do list.
“Or, we could just move.” He conceded. Heck, at this point, the whole lair was pretty much a do-over. They were going to have a looot of cleaning up to do when the watery insanity died down. But while Raph did raise a perfectly logical point (Go figure), Donnie still wasn't convinced. Sewer or not, home was home. And if the problem was as simple as he thought it was, then he wasn't ready to give up on it just yet.
“Look, we're already here so we might as well check things out. I'm sure some old cardboard boxes just got caught over the grates or something”

The beam of his flashlight joined up over Raph's, illuminating a rusty metal door hanging open on one hinge. There wasn't much more to it then that: A narrow stairwell, a dark pit beyond, and water covering it all. Donnie remembered seeing this particular tunnel on an old sewer map once upon a time, and he had suspected that there'd be some swimming involved in their little quest to stop the flooding. But even so, he hadn't exactly counted on it looking so.... well...

“Creepy,”

It took Donnie a full two seconds to remember that April was standing right next to him.“I, uh- mean... I've seen scarier.”
Man. He really hoped she bought that. Hard to tell in the dark. All Donnie knew was that April had been far more enthusiastic at the prospect of venturing down an old, flooded subway tunnel then you would expect a human to be. It was impressive. Really impressive. Super impressive.
Was she amazing or what?
Oh, right, water...tunnels... Raph was saying something...
Or he was saying something. Something else was making a sound, far off at first, but growing louder and louder. The sound of splashing, like something moving through the water. A big something... Donnie turned, throwing his light out the way they;d came. And there, completely dwarfing the door with its sheer size, was one of the very last things Donnie every wanted to run into when taking a walk down a dark sewer tunnel.

"My friends!"

Oh no.... Nope, nope, nope, nope.
Now, Donnie didn't consider himself a coward. But there was something about Leatherhead and his freakish ability to fly off the handle at any given second that naturally made Donnie a little hesitant to be in the company of the massive reptile. The fact that Leatherhead had twice grabbed him by the face, made Donnie downright nervous.

“L-leatherhead!” Donnie's voice took on an embarrassing pitch. It was only by sheer force of will (And by his own code of “Don't look stupid in front of April”) that Donnie didn't make a beeline to hide behind Raph. He spent an awkward moment trying to fight off self preservation instead, eyes fixed on Leatherhead's massive hands. “What brings you t-to uh...t-this side of the sewer?"

Pleasedon'tgrabmyface,pleasedon'tgrabmyface,please don'tgrabmyface.

Preoccupied as Donnie was, he didn't notice the little red lights. They appeared from out of the maintenance stairwell, just one lone blink at first... It was difficult to see in the murkiness of the water, but as it drew closer to the surface, it became clearer- The silhouette of what looked like a fish, small fry washed up from the river, or so it seemed. Except for the light. A little red, blinking light, soon joined by another, and another, and another, until the little army of blinking fish swam off through the water. They followed the flow of the water, splitting where the water split, up and down the tunnels.

Some went harmlessly further up the sewer pipes.
The others, where swimming in the direction of the lair.

(So um. I should have warned you guys that sometimes I write a lot. I guess you might have figured that out on your own by now. I like to write. Sometimes I go overboard. >_> This is one of those cases. Don't worry, I never expect anyone to match my output)

[Jester]

"Donnie...get offa me," Raphael grumbled. "It's just Leatherhead. You act like he's gonna..." then Raph realized why his brother was so shaken. "I won't let him get all face-huggy on ya. Has you're place been flooded to, big guy? Before Leatherhead could answer something else attracted Raph's attention. Hey...what are those?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Raphael caught a glimpse of the slight reddish glow. what started as one soon doubled, and doubled, and DOUBLED. Some were working their way up various run-offs, but others....

"Donnie, what are those things? Some of them loom the be headed back to the lair. We gotta tell Leo!"

[LH]

Leatherhead spotted his friends up ahead. "My Friends!", he shouted. Leatherhead stopped in front of the group and smiled. Looking at Donatello, he could sense the great fear that he had of the large gator. The Turtles are the best friends.. the only friends that he has. His greatest fear is that in a fit of rage he seriously injures one of them.. or worse...

Leatherhead's smile quickly began to fade. "My friends, something is terribly wrong. My home is flooded, and it appears to be getting worse all over the sewers.". Leatherhead noticed his friends faces suddenly looked puzzled. "What is the matter?", he asked. Leatherhead turned to see what had his friends so confused. a large group of red lights were making their way through the sewer pipes towards the Turtles home! Leatherhead began to growl. "Kraang..", he said as his eyes began to shift to the shade of white that signaled all loss of control. Leatherhead looked at his friends faces, seeing the fear they had in their eyes. He put his hands on his head as his eyes shifted back to their normal state. "I am sorry! I did not mean to scare you all!". As Leatherhead took a deep breath, he watched as the mysterious lights continued to make their way through the sewers.

[Lethal Lullaby]

April watched as Donatello hid behind Raphael and waved a hello to Leatherhead. Then she saw the reddish glow as well. "Oh boy." she said a bit concerned. Hopefully it wasn't too dangerous. Whatever it was.

[BubblyShell22]

Leo continued to salvage whatever he could from the Lair. He really hoped the water would go down soon as he didn't want them to have to relocate from where they were. This home was so cool and had been their home for as long as he could remember.

"Perhaps we should take a break, Leonardo," Splinter suggested. "We have been working for a little while."

Leo nodded and sat down on the couch. "I just hope the guys get back soon," he said. "I'm worried about them."

"They will be fine, Leonardo," Splinter reassured him.

Suddenly, Leo noticed a faint glow coming toward the entrance to the Lair. "What the heck is that?" he asked.

[TheSmartOne]

“Wait.”
Donnie reluctantly lowered his guard, logic winning out over face-grabbing anxiety.
“You said 'all' over the sewers. That's not possible.” But face-grab happy as Leatherhead was, he had no reason to lie about such a thing. “There are multiple runoffs for different tunnels. The only way the entire system could flood was if they were all clogged and the chances of that-”
The chances of that....
Donnie was suddenly struck by the sense that there was something very fishy about all of this. He really wasn't far off the mark. At Raph's prompting, he looked down.

“Whoah!”

The little lights flickered through the gloom of the dark water. There were almost too many to count. Without a word, Donnie reached for his bo staff. He soon had one of the mystery mechs out of the water, eyes locked on the twitching electrical mess he'd managed to impale on the end of his bo's hidden blade.

“Whoah!” Donnie said again, memorized by the delicate piece of technology. The red light continued to blink feebly as the little metal fish wriggled on it's pike. It was truly a testament to Donnie's focus that Leatherhead's sudden, angry roar at the sight of the mangled technology didn't send him running to hide behind Raphael. He was far too engrossed with the mechanical fish, picking apart what remained of it by sight alone.

“This doesn't look like Kra-....like you-know-who's technology.” Donnie said. Hey, he knew better then to go shouting Leatherhead's 'triggers'.
“But it looks like these toys belong to someone else we know. Don't you think they look familiar, Raph?” Donnie pointed at the blinking red light. “Looks like Baxter Stockman opted out for an infrared camera this time. Kind of pointless. You'd think someone as smart as him would realize that turtles are cold-blooded.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when Donnie suddenly realized that there were two people in the vicinity of the sewer who were, in fact, not cold-blooded, and who would most certainly show up on a heat sensitive camera. The first person was standing within three feet of him, one particularly curious mechanical fish swimming in a steady circle around her feet. It was soon joined by another, and another, until all the remaining mechanical fish had April more or less surrounded. A high pitched shriek rose up from the metal fish, resonating against the sewer walls. Donnie had to clamp both his hands over his ears.
“Quick! Smash them! They're sending out a signal!”

But there was another person the mechanical fish would easily find. Donnie was wrong to think that the flooded tunnels, and the mechanical fish equipped with heat-seeking cameras, was a plot to locate him and his brothers.
Heading right for the lair, the mechanical fish were meant to find Master Splinter.

[Luigiperps]

(Can I be Doctor Rockwell/Monkey Brains, if I know how to fit it in?)

[LH]

(You should try messaging TheSmartOne, she is in control of the character roster.)

"Arrrrrrggghhh" Leatherhead grunted as the loud noise rang through the sewers.

His eyes shifted into rage state.

Leatherhead started to crush the bots in a blind fury as they came his way.