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I knew that wall was gonna come down.

That's all Raphael remembers as he slowly, slowly wakes up. Splinter had sent them into teams of two on a scouting trip through the sewers; with all the monsters they've been (accidentally) making lately, they have to make sure that their home is secure. There should be only two entrances to the lair, and only those two ways to get to them. Everything must be guarded, any alternative routes must be sealed off. Mikey and Donnie checked under the water -since Mikey really can hold his breath the longest- and Leo and Raph went to secure the turnstiles and railway.

There had been a wall beginning to crumble further down, past where they park the Shellraiser. Leo was in one of his particularly bossy moods, those 'You should do what I say because I'm the leader and if you would follow my orders everything would turn out right' moods and that just makes Raphael feel like being contrary. So of course, when Leonardo tells Raphael not to mess with the wall, to just leave it alone and they'll come back with Donnie later and reinforce it, Raph just has to push his luck. He throws a rock, then another, and when Leo finally snaps at him and turns to leave, Raph punches it before turning away.

He doesn't remember what happened after that. Judging by how much his head hurts, Raphael thinks the wall probably collapsed, right on his big stupid skull. He's really not looking forward to the "I told you so" he's earned, so he fights waking for as long as he can until he can't ignore the throbbing any longer.

But then he sees the chain around his ankle. And he notices that the throbbing coming from his head isn't just because of what's probably a concussion; he's in a tiny cage, chained to the bottom of it, and he's being moved. It takes him too long a moment to realize he's probably in the back of a truck; he can just see past the bars of a small window, a thin strip of light that's probably from the back doors. It smells like that nasty petting zoo four blocks from the school.

A zoo transport.

Adrenaline shoots through Raph's blood, kickstarts his heart into thump-thumping against his plastron and he jerks up; the chain around his ankle rattles and he grabs at the bars.

A fucking zoo.

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So they've been kidnapped by some sort of tranq-wielding animal wranglers working for an as-yet-unnamed woman who sent her goons out specifically to capture them - whether they were after the turtles specifically or simply any mutant they could get their hands on is yet another entry in the "sure would be nice to know" column - possibly for a science lab or zoo or creepy private collection, but let's not forget what's really important here: the fact they mistook Leo for a girl.

Leo spares half a second to glare because are you kidding there are more important things to focus on here and also he does not look like a girl - does he?? - but that's before the situation collapses. Dammit, Leo KNEW something like this would happen if Raph couldn't get clear of the combat zone in short order, this is exactly why he wanted his brother to leave! He should've kept trying for that lock, should've taken a harder line with Raphael...

And now the situation is bad. In fact it could hardly get much worse; Raph is down for the count, Leo can barely stand and their trump card, their hidden weapons, has been spent for nothing, along with any element of surprise. What meager advantage Leo holds is temporary breathing room at best; there's no way he can carry Raph out on a half-mangled leg, even if he could stumble his own way through the lingering sedation - the limp weight of his brother would be difficult under normal circumstances. They aren't walking out of here. And even Leo can't be optimistic about the possibility of negotiating passage; the humans are only waiting for a clear shot and they will get an opportunity sooner or later.

"You're telling me," Leo grumbles in surly self-depreciation, uneasily tightening his hold as he edges backwards along the ramp and trying to take advantage of the protection afforded by the open trailer. This situation can't last. Even if Leo could hold out, barricaded with his hostage for hours, waiting for Raph to wake up would only do them so much good. And both the humans and Leonardo know that he's not going to get that far. Yet his other options are, what - to get shot? To give up?

Actually... With both retreat and victory out of bounds, surrender is not that bad of an idea. If he's going down anyway, he would be better off conscious and aware, alert for information they might need. It stings his pride but he's simply out of options; he has to do what's best for the both of them, and that means clinging to any advantage he can. Including consciousness. Leo would never consider the move in Raphael's sight, but his brother can hardly cuss him out for giving up while he's not awake to see it.

"Okay - okay! Don't shoot. I'm - I'm letting him go." Leo loosens his grip, reversing his knife-hold as he cautiously moves to release the human, and takes a balancing step with his good leg to adjust for the loss of support - then his foot slips at the edge of the ramp. He's lost his orientation along the angled platform, backing up with his attention elsewhere; now he's far closer to the lip than he expected.

With a startled gasp, Leo teeters to compensate, automatically reaching with his free hand for the nearest and only handhold: his former hostage. But the man isn't feeling friendly and he shoves the mutant away with a resentful slur; Leo yelps, flails wide - but he can't regain balance, slipping over the edge and scraping his injured leg on the way down. Before he can give voice to the pain the ground slams into his carapace, driving air from his lungs and resounding through every mangled or bruised muscle fiber.

Gagging, Leo twists to the side and grips his leg, but he doesn't have time to wallow in shock. He scuffles to sit halfway up the instant his shaking limbs will respond, instinctively searching for his weapon, but instead of his wayward tanto he finds himself quickly ringed by a half-circle of scowling humans, gun barrels glinting from the artificial lights illuminating the loading zone.

Leo blinks wide over one hand raised halfway in defense, breathing harsh. He's down, pinned, injured and unarmed - surely they wouldn't?

"Wait -"

Sorry Leo, but they would.

Pfft. A dart sinks into his shoulder. It's dangerous to double-dose someone with tranq -or dose someone with a concussion like the other one, for that matter- but they're too smart to leave awake.

It's weird, though; the male, uh, the red one, went down so fast. They'd switched to slow-acting light tranquilizers after the initial dose, just to make sure they didn't kill their prey. Maybe because of the concussion.

The men don't even wait for Leo to completely pass out before they grab him and haul him back into the trailer to stuff him back into his cage. They lock up his ankle, leave someone with a gun to watch over him as they vanish beyond the edge of the ramp.

"Can't believe these things fucking talk," the guard mutters, glancing over his shoulder when something thuds outside. He turns his attention back to Leo, keeping his gun ready but not level, until he hears screaming coming from outside. He rushes to the end of the trailer and peers out, then stands poised at the top of the ramp, like he can't decide whether to leave or stay. "Shit! Motherfucking- God damn it, shoot it! Shoot the fucking thing! She'll pay us just as much for one!"

The screaming and commotion continues outside- The man waves his gun at something beyond the trailer's view, then points it at Leo, then returns to the doors- Someone outside is shouting, "fucking shit- shit!" and there's sounds like a scuffle-

Then quiet.

A bird calls off in the distance.

There's a rattle and Raphael's cage comes into view, rolled up the ramp by two men white-faced and grim. "Why didn't you shoot it?" hisses Leonardo's guard.

"Look, it wasn't gonna let him go. If we dosed it again it'd die, and we'd only get half the money." One man continues to roll Raphael's cage until it's next to Leonardo's. He's unconscious inside, much more bruised than he was a moment ago. "And now we got less people to split the share with."

"That's fucked up. That was Norm, you knew him."

"I knew he was a bully and a drunk, and he wouldn't have gotten grabbed if he wasn't such a moron. He's dead. Fuck switching trucks, we'll just change the plates. C'mon." The man claps the guard on the shoulder, and the three of them leave the trailer, roll up the ramp and lock the doors behind them.

A moment later, the engine rumbles to life and they're on the way again. It's a long drive ahead.

Leonardo fights the drug as hard as he can, but his fingertips are already going numb by the time he manages to brush the dart aside. Although he tries struggling on the way to the cage, the slow, listless gestures fail to warrant retaliation. In chains once again, he blinks resentfully at the guard; a valiant effort to push himself off the ground results in nothing more than the weak re-positioning of one arm.

But at the sounds of a struggle - unmistakably his brother in action - and the cries of shoot him, adrenalin joins the cause and Leo raises his head a couple unsteady inches, eyes bleary yet wide from alarm. As the situation evolves, out of sight and out of Leonardo's control, time moves as sluggishly as his leaden heartbeat; he waits in dread for the sound of gunshot, but it doesn't come. When the image of Raphael's cage finally reappears, it wavers in and out of focus; Leo's chin threatens to hit the floor but he clings doggedly to awareness as his brother comes into view, battered but intact. The humans hadn't shot him, although it had been a close thing, and they weren't gentle about the rest of it.

Leo would demand to know just what the heck happened out there, but even if such questions could be answered, he's long past forming words. He manages to keep his head tilted up, semi-conscious for long interminable minutes as the door closes and the truck moves once more, but the badly-ventilated darkness and the low noise of the road and the steady, inevitable pull of the tranquilizer drag him farther and farther down. His eyes roll closed and his jaw hits the ground, breath slowing as if the air has become too heavy to shift. Still Leo strives to remain awake and thinking, even if he can't move.

He wonders how far out they're being taken, and it worries him. At this pace, they might be out-of-state soon, if they weren't already. The further afield they go, the harder it will be for anyone to track them. And now, their advantages of hidden weaponry and surprise are nullified...

It's increasingly more difficult to think at all - and to breathe, Leo realizes, feeling the air slowly leak from his throat and the long, long pause before he pulls another shallow breath. His heartbeat thuds loud and slow, and he tries to open his mouth to gasp for more air, but he can't move that far. All he can do is listen to his heart slow as reality dissolves in a slow burn, blood growing stagnant and metabolism shifting into low gear.

He's very dimly aware of the light when the truck doors re-open, but barely feels it when he's prodded. Words filter through, but their meaning is elusive.

"Damn. Hope we didn't over-do it... I dunno if she - uh, he's gonna make it."
"As long as it's alive when we hand 'em over, we get paid and the rest is their problem. Now come ON, I wanna unload these things before one of these creepy things starts talking again."

Raphael is out cold for the entire drive and the unloading. The men wheel the cages out of the back of the trailer and through a set of double doors, arguing in whispers over cuts and what to report, what to ask for. Whether or not to ask for some kind of compensation for Norm's death. They shut up as they pass through a fourth set of doors and the cages come to a gentle halt.

"Just two? I heard reports there were four."

A woman with large, square shoulders draped in a lab coat crouches right next to Leonardo's cage and peers inside. Her eyes linger over the shape of his shell, the length of his limbs.

"We only found two down there, so we grabbed them and got out. We already got one guy dead, and that's just with two of them. The girl one's even got a busted up leg and the boy's got a knot on his head, but they're fine. Were conscious and talking and everything, which you didn't-"

The woman straightens up out of Leonardo's view. "Talking. Did you say talking?"

"Yeah, creepiest thing. Talking freakin' English, making demands, oh and killing Norm-"

"You're not to mention to anyone about their understanding of speech. Do I make myself clear? I'm going to write an addendum and you're going to have your supervisor sign it before I pay you a cent."

There's an awkward silence before the woman crouches down again. She catches Leonardo stirring lightly. "And this turtle is clearly male. Aren't you?"

The sedative sits heavy in Leonardo's system, turning his limbs into lead and making it impossible to accomplish much more than breathing. His brain, at least, manages to wake up enough to follow current events. It seems his eyes never fully closed, half-lidded and blurry from the drug, so he watches the blurry images filtering through with as much attention as he can wrangle, notes all the details he can muster and prays he can retain this information around the fog clouding his senses. It's difficult to focus and his head is spinning and his mouth tastes remarkably like a stale dumpster, but their escape might very well rely on knowing how many doors guard the entrance; so he thinks of Master Splinter whacking him over the head with a bokken and concentrates.

A lot of the conversation that washes past his cage, he doesn't need to hear, but what he remembers from earlier is confirmed. Raph... he killed one of the men, back there. Actually killed someone. Leo's held his brother back from using too much force, he knows that temper has always had potential to get out of hand, but he never really thought it would come to -

It's too much. He's got to remain focused on the here and now. These humans... Moreover, this woman. She doesn't want anyone to know they can talk? That means they probably don't have to worry about getting plastered all over the news, so at least there's that. But - why?

While he thinks the woman isn't looking, Leo works his mouth briefly and swallows, trying to gauge how much of his strength is online, which isn't much. He's frustrated when she notices, but really, he's already pulled the possum gig on the hired goons; attempting it now is to no advantage. He might as well engage. Clenching his teeth, Leo blinks hard and opens his eyes properly, focusing with determination on their new foe.

This is the person hunting his family; the one he's going to have to outwit. He needs to learn all he can, and tell her as little as possible. Except for the part about him being a boy of course, because that ought to be obvious; besides, she's already certain of the truth, and Leo has no idea how to dissemble otherwise. (Tie his mask tails into a bow? Flutter his nonexistent eyelashes? Yeah, how about No.)

He draws a breath to answer; it stutters into a cough as his body informs him he hasn't been pulling in anywhere near enough oxygen for hours on end. He breathes deep, licks his parched lips and tries again.

"Thanks for noticing... What do you - want with us," Leo manages, enunciating slowly and carefully around a tongue thick with dehydration. He can't quite circumvent the twice-drugged dizziness and nausea enough to raise his head off the fragrant cage floor, but by the time he's finished with his question the young leader has mustered a glare leaden with with unadulterated stubbornness.

The woman frowns at the way the words trip out of his mouth. "How many times did you dose them?" she snaps up, probably at the men. Whatever their response was must have angered her, because she pinches the bridge of her nose. "I told you to use that sedative sparingly. You could have killed them! Did you dose the one with the concussion?"

"Well yeah, he was killing a guy-"

"Idiots." The woman disappears from Leonardo's window and moves over to crouch in front of Raphael's cage. "And I'll note the bruising is inconsistent with a wall collapse. I suppose you took out your anger on him? Like animals?"

"What- hell no, that was us trying to get him off of Norm without killing him!"

The woman sighs. "It doesn't matter. If either of these two die, I'll expect a partial refund. I might withhold payment until tomorrow just to make sure." She returns to Leonardo's cage and addresses him directly. "I apologize for the conduct of my...colleagues." Her lip curls into a sneer around the word. "We thought you were wild animals. If I knew you could be reasoned with, this might have gone differently."

Raph... No, he can't die. Not from this, not from a bump on the head and a sedative overdose. He's far too tough, would never let himself get taken down by something so banal.

... Right?

But the fact is, Leo can't contemplate the alternative. Especially when it's already tough to breathe, never mind focus on getting a handle on their situation. The news that she would have reasoned with them if she'd known they could talk inspires cautious optimism, although he's still not letting his guard down. It might be a lie, to get him to relax.

Oh man, he's dizzy. Half of his body doesn't seem to be there; the other half is useless dead weight. It's a minor miracle he's managed speech. Leo breathes as deep as he can manage, struggling to force more oxygen to his brain and muscles and for a moment it seems to work; but as he strains to lift his head the world heaves and spins. Leo's eyes slide closed as frigid numbness grips the back of his skull, but he clings to consciousness with a grimace as his jaw scrapes flat against the floor.

"Didn't... answer my - question," he manages around shallow gasps, one eye cracking open to show a resentful slit of blue as Leo stubbornly watches for whatever clues her body language might tell him.

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