Chapter Text
(Raphs p.o.v)
The night in New York city is lively and colorful at this time of the night as me and my brothers are jumping on the city roofs. Our destination: Tony's Pizza. Our goals: have a fun night together. The sound of us joyfully talking and laughing together echoed through the air and filled me with a great deal of pride.
We really need some time where we could just get a break from all the weird characters we've been dealing with this year. Everything from Crazy Spider Lady to revengeful Polar Bear Wrestler (That one still hurts). Not to mention a crazy goat warlord who wanted to destroy humankind by creating powerful warriors (a.k.a. us) that now lives above April's apartment.
Although Draxum ended up to be a trustworthy ally, that doesn't take away the danger that´s still lurking in the dark corners of both this city and in the Hidden city. I need to...No, we need to be able to stop this evil, for everyone's safety. And as the leader of the team, it’s my job to be ready to handle every problem that comes in our way.
“Last one to Tony's is a rotten shell.” Mikey happily declares out loud. His cheerful voice draws me back from my thoughts as he´s running and jumping in front of us all. Leo is close second, running gracefully with his smirky smile he usually has. If I had to guess, he is thinking of a good pun he can use once we arrive at the restaurant. Not far behind him is Donnie, who is hovering behind Leo using his battle shell, trying to look emotionless and uninterested but for us who knew him can see that he is having a good time.
“Is this even a competition?” Donnie asks with his classic dry tone.
“Yeah. We know that Raph is gonna be last anyway” Leo interrupts with a smile.
“I am not!” I anser with a playful annoyance. However I know that he's kinda right. I mean, I´m really big, which means more weight I have to carry unlike my acrobatic younger brothers. Not that I complain, since my biggest strength lies in my hard punches and in my defences. Sure, sometimes I'm worried that my strength is gonna hurt someone but that is the burden I have to deal with, being the mussels on the team and all.
As we keep running, the guys are getting further and further away from me and my breath gets harder to take in. I make a small stop on one of the buildings to catch my breath when I suddenly hear a sound.
I do a quick turn around to try and locate the sound but I don't see anything suspicious. It was just a whoosh sound, so I should not think too much about it but my sense tells me that something isn't right.
“Come on big guy!” My thoughts get distracted ones more as I hear Leo calling me from the distans.
I do a quick look around one last time but when I don't find anything I slightly shake my head and get back to running again. Uggh, I'm just imagining things. The guys always say I'm overreacting all the time. They also think I'm way too overprotective of them but can you blame me? Ever since we encountered Draxum and his ozzesquito we have had so much stuff thrown at us that with just one mistake could lead us to our downfall. And then it would be my fault.
I eventually catch up with my bros as they are standing on the edge of one of the rooftops, looking at Tony's. When Leo hears that I have rejoined them he turns around to me and lays a hand on my shell, giving me a small smile which I return with a smile of my own.
Three...
...Two...
...One
”You know, I wanted to tell you one of my running jokes, but it somehow ran away.”
Aaaaaand there is the pun. All of us (except for Leo of course, who is looking way to proud of himself) groan in anoynens. I even see Donnie transforming his tech-bo into a big hammer, ready to swing it at Leo.
“Donnie. You better not do what I think you will be doing”. I didn't say it out loud but I didn't have to, sense my eyes are basically saying that themselves. I stare and shake my head at him firmly. Donnie quickly lets out a sound of disappointment before turning his tech-bo back to normal.
We quickly turned our attention back to the pizza place down below us as we can see it being as crowded as it usually is on a Friday night. Luckily we have our human disguises on us.
“Okay Mad Dogz. we get in, get the pizzas and get out. No distraction” I say with my leader/big brother tone.
“Yes sir” Mikey says happily as he´s doing a salute.
“Oh come on Rapie boy. When it comes to pizza, there is nothing that can distract me” I hear Leo comment with his relaxed attitude.
“Except for that blue scarf you ah so desperately needed to have” Donnie butt in with a dry remark.
Oh yeah, the scarf incident . I still have no idea how we got from trying to get some pizza to getting chased by the police, the angry saler that the scarf came from and a really angry grandma. The guys are still teasing me for losing a fight against her but Come On! It was a GRANDMA. You can't just beat up a grandma, no matter how scary she turns out to be.
I look at Donnie and Leo as they stare at one and other looking ready to have a clash of words. Oh man, this is gonna be another disaster twins argument. If I'm lucky, this will last for just an hour.
“You are just jealous because I looked amazing in it” Leo defended himself. Throwing the tail of his bandana like it was his hair. The tail hit Donnie in the face and he quickly waved it away, looking frustrated.
“Oh yeah, sure. it fit perfectly with the dumb dumb face of yours'' Donnie saying with a sarcastic and dry tone.
Leo gasps like he is feeling offended. “Only for that comment, I'm gonna order an Hawaiian '' he said in an overreacting tone. Donnie shudders and grins in disgust about someone even considering having pineapple on pizza. The rest of us have had theories about why Doonie hates pineapple so much but I think Mikey's theory that he was mistaken for a pineapple by Pops as a child is probably my favorite.
“Blagh, Pineapple, the devil's fruit” Donnie says in disgust.
“Except you don't lose your ability to swim off it” Leo commented back with a smug.
Both me and Donnie take a glance at each other and then look back at Leo. While I´m looking at him more confused, Donnie is looking at him like he is done with this world. We all are quiet for a few seconds until Leo realizes we even don't understand or don't care.
“You guys need to appreciate culture more” Leo scoffed back at us.
I took a small sigh of relief as this argument lasted for a short while but then I realized that we are one turtle short. “Wait, where did Mikey go?” I say as my panic goes from lying at a one to being at a five.
“Comeon slowpokes” We hear Mikey shout at us from a couple of levers down. Donnie and Leo take a look at one another and smile at each other (Leo having a wider smile than Donnie) and then they both jump down from the roof, leaving me alone.
For some reason my body tenses for a split second. Someone is watching us.
”Is someone there?” I say outlond to no one in particular. And as expected no answer was coming.
I take a look around me but like the time before, I see nothing suspicious and the tense feeling I just felt quickly disappears as well.
I´m jumping down from the roof to join my little bros but now I’m even more paranoid. Who is it? and why does it not feel friendly?
15 minutes later:
”Oh yeah baby. It's pizza time” Mikey shouts in delight as all four of us take a seat at an abandoned park.
It’s located a couple of blocks away and consists of pretty much overgrown weeds everywhere and a set of broken benches and broken swings a couple of meters away. It may not be the most cossy place to be, but at least we don’t have to hide.
We quickly take off our disguises as we find a bench that doesn't look too broken to sit at. Although I had to sit on the ground in front of them (Hey. If I can break a chair that is hundred percent stable by sitting on it, I wouldn't want to risk breaking the only bench here that is still intact).
But then Mikey decided to keep me company on the ground which made me feel really flattered and happy.
We sittin and eat there for about 20 min as we’re enjoying eachothers company. At one point we had a conversation about which topping on pizza is the best that later escalated to a contest of who could come up with the most disgusting pizza toppings ever. Donnie wasn't that hard to guess but Leo had the bright idea of having a pizza with Anchovies and Chocolate Chips which made Mikey chef persona groan in pain. We got a good laugh when Mikey's idea of worse pizza topping was having jelly beans on it, and then claimed that he would still eat it if someone offered him. it
Man, I wish that we could get more moments like this in our life. Moments when all four of us can enjoy being teens instead of worrying about someone trying to kill us.
But something was ringing in my head. I'm having the same feeling I had before. And I could feel the unpleasantness in the air.
“Guys…we are not alone here” I say in a low and serious tone which quickly kills the good mode we were having. The guys scan the area with me with worried faces. Leo and Donnie are standing on my left side, back to back with their weapons out while Mikey is standing a couple of meters away, having his kusari-fundo at the ready.
We all look around us for about a minute before the tense feeling disappears from us. ”I don't see anything” Donnie eventually interrupts the silence.
”Me either.” Mikey agreed as well.
”Raph, Are you sure you’re not just imagining things?” Leo asked me with a raised eyebrow. Or he would have if he had ones like Donnies.
”Yeah.” I anser with a small amount of distrust to my surroundings. ”This isn't the first time I felt this tonight. My guts is telling me that something isn't right here”
”Or you could just be more hungry. I mean you ate only two pizzas tonight?” Mikey commented back with a smile, trying to calm us down.
It works as all three of them start to laugh which takes them out of the suspenseful moment. It takes me a moment before I eventually start to calm myself down and let out a big sigh.
“Relax Raph, there is nothing wrong going on” Leo says, standing next to me with a soft smile.
Man, Is he right? Am I going insane here? Am I trying to see danger that isn't even there? My thought is a mess and it gets even more messier the moment I hear that. A groggy groan and whimper that is making me, Leo and Donnie freeze at where we’re standing.
”Guys…I….” All three of us are turning around just in time to see our baby brother fall to the ground with a dunch, with a red dart placed at the back of his neck.
“MIKEY!” All three of us shout and rush to his side. Donnie is the first one who gets to Mikey's little body and starts to investigate his pulse.
“I-Is he…” I ask with a panicked voice. I shouldn't be. He is fine. Donnie will say he’s totally fine.
But what he isn't? What if he's dead. NO. Don’t think like that Raph. That dart can not have killed him….That dart! That’s what caused Mikey to fall. Wait. Where did it come from? Who did this? Will it go after the rest of us? I need answers!
I’m looking at Donnie, hoping he at least has some answers that can calm our nerves. However, when Donnie is about to say something he gets interrupted by the sound of a dread and growly voice. ”Don't worry about the little guy. He is just sleeping. He will eventually wake up”
From the shadow reveals a young man with big tattoos covering his right arm. He’s wearing a dark blue shirt, a black jeans vest, pants and cap.nHe has dark brown, curly hair that reaches all the way down to the neck. His smile has an unpleasant appearance that makes him feel freaterning and his dark brown eyes could pierce hearts.
But that is nothing compared to the present that is coming from the man behind him. He's as big as I am, heck, he even has big muscles like me. And that is something I rarely see, and never from a human. He is wearing a while tank top, big dark blue pants and has a blue shaved haircut. I can say with good conscience that by the way he looks at us, he's really bad news.
”Who are you? What do you want?” I say as I take a stand in front of my brothers, trying to cover them from the evil threat in front of us.
”Oh I can tell you that. As soon as you creatures are all ours” The smaller man says with a sinister smile.
I take a look all around me when I hear the sound of rustling leaves and more of these men are coming out of their hiding places. While they are not oozing as much of a threat as the two in front of us, they make up for it through shared numbers. I would say around fifty humans are present. They all have chains, nets and guns with those red darts at their disposal. I look at my brother and they both are looking scared. I need to get us all out of here.
I'm about to bring out my tonfas and go for the big and small guy but before I could even react the big guy launched at us with a big slash hammer and hit Leo's left side. Leo flies into a tree with a huge cransh leaving me and Donnie shocked and most of all, terrified.
”LEO!” I scream and angrily charge toward the big man as he bends down to pick up Leos ōdachi. He blocks my tonfas with Leo´s sword easterly and by using his strength he pushes me backwards. I'm about to charge at him once again but stop to a halt when I hear Donnie scream in pain.
I turn around to see a couple of this human having captured Donnie in chains and a gun pusht into his neck. “Drop your tonfas” one of the guys says. I can feel dread filling my whole body as I see my brothers are either in the enemies hands or unconscious on the ground. I can´t risking doing anything stupid.
To the humans' delight I drop my tonfas on the ground and raise my arms above my head. Once the tonfas hit the ground, the big man picks them up, looking at me with both cautiousness and mockery. But I ignore him and instead stare into the smaller man's eyes trying to think of a way to get my brothers away from here….but I have nothing.
Damit. Why can't I come up with anything? I´m the leader. It's my job to lead the team, and now I'm failing them.
The smaller human is holding donnies tech-box in his hands looking at me with a smile. ”Now, would you kindly come with us willingly…or are we gonna have to use force to do so?”
I growl in anger, showing my teeth in a way that is supposed to come up as threatening. It doesn't work out well since he keeps staring at me with confidence. He knows I’m not gonna risk my brother's safety.
“Uh, I would´t push that button if I were you.” All our eyes are directed at Donnie as he looks at the man with his typical Donies smile that has a touch of evil genius wibe. The smaller man looks at him with confusion and without knowing it, he reaches one of the tech-bos hidden buttons which create a thick fog that covers an area around 20 diameter long.
The fog is really thick and makes it really hard to breathe in there. I start coughing but I am putting that aside for the moment because now it's my chance.
In the comotion of coughing and loud confusion between the humans I use this opportunity to reach Donnie and knock out the humans that had captured him. I quickly put him on my shell where I also heard him coughing due to the smog. I’m moving towards Mikey who is lying unguarded on the ground and putting him with Donnie. Once I reached Leo and placed him in my arms I can see the big human a couple of meters away. Like me he's having a hard time breathing but the moment he sees us he approaches us with faster and faster speed. Even so I don't let him near us and run out of the fog with my brothers in my arms and shell.
“Sir they are getting away” The big man is shouting inside the fog wall behind me to no one in particular. But I don´t stop. Raph can't stop. I hear the smaller guy anser and what he says is making my feets to run even faster.
“Don't just stand there. After them!”
My heart is beating like crazy as I am running for my life. But I have to turn that fear away and keep my focus on my little brothers, to get them home safely. “Donnie, are you two okay?” I ask him in a worried voice.
“Yeah, (couch) I´m fine. Mikey is still unconscious though. Once we get home I have to make an antidote to him.” He answers with a tired tone.
“Is the dart poisons?” I ask back, panicking. Donnie quickly realized I had started to hyperventilate and pet my head to calm me down.
“No. But without the antidote, he will be out for at least a week.” he says calmingly.
We don´t get to say anything more when we hear Leo groan in discomfort in my arms. His body is moving a little before he opens his eyes and looks at me confused.
Leo! Oh my, I´m so happy you´re okay” I say with a joyful tone as I sigh in relief. I can also hear Donnie sighing as well.
“Raph. Did you hit me by accident again?” Leo says with a groggy voice and for some reason I start to laugh. Maybe because this is the first best thing that has happened in the last couple of minutes but I am just glad he didn't die.
“Raph. We need a place to hide.” Donnie interrupts our moment of relief with the hard reality we still have to face. We are far away from our home and our weapons are still in our enemies hands. I could take them down the sewers but I don't want to risk leading the humans to our home quarters. I take a look around my surroundings to see if we can find a place to hide when I suddenly see an abandoned house where the garage door is standing open.
Perfect.
With quick movement I head towards the garage. Well inside I put down my bros behind some crates and then I move back to the port to close it from the inside.
“We should be safe here.” I say while breathing heavily. I turn my attention back to my brothers and I see Donnie looking into Leo's left arm. When I look closer I can see that his arm is broken and with him grinning badly of pain just confirms it to me.
“How are you feeling guys?” I ask them with a worried tone. Leo looks at me with a small smile but his eyes are brimming with tears of pain. Donnie on the other hand, surprising to me is looking more pissed off.
“You shouldn't have left our weapons in their hands.” He says in anger.
“Hey, I had my hands full over there and getting us out of there was more important to me.” I raise my voice in a way to defend myself. While I agreed that taking our weapons as well would have been great, I definitely didn't want to fight that big guy and risk my brothers getting caught in between. Donnie rises up from the ground and while his bodylangues is telling me he's mad, his eyes are telling me he's terrified.
“Except now with my tech-bo can easily track our phones and lead them to us” he shouts out.
“They can track us?” I yell in panic. Then this means that they are not too far away.
“Then we just get rid of our phones.” Leo says as he reaches for all our phones with his healthy hand and smashes them with a small hammer that he found on the floor. Donnie looks horrified that his precious phone gets destroyed.
“There. Now they can not track us” Leo says with some delight in his voice sense he solved our problems. But as soon as he says that the garage door bursts open and the humans are standing there with their weapons at the ready. The smaller human is still holding Donnies tech-bo in his hand.
“I think that it's too late now.” I say with a whispering high-pitched voice.
I look at our surroundings behind our hiding spot and see the humans are closing the garage port, basically trapping us in here while they slowly sneak up on us.
“We are surrounded. '' Leo whispers out with panic in his tone to no one in particular.
“Oh really, I didn't see that.” Donnie whispers in a sarcastic, angry and panicking voice. Pretty usal for him to do when pressure is on him. I can see Leo doesn't want to tackle Donnies drama and go on offense with words. “Shut up Donnie, it's your fault”
“HOW IS THIS MY FAULT?” Donnie screams but in a whisper and waves his arms everywhere. “I DIDIN´T LEAVE MY TECH-BO BEHIND AND YOU GUYS KNOW I PUT TRACKING DEVICE IN EVERYTHING”
“GUYS, THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR FIGHTING” I interrupt their dispute, knowing this is not gonna help us at the moment. Both of their faces are showing some remorse as they take the time to calm themself down.
“Yeah you right...but what are we gonna do Raph” Donnie mutters to me looking really scared. I hate when he loses his emotionless demeanor. It's so unlike him. The same can be said about Leo looking more stressful instead of confident.
Come on Raph think. I know this isn't your biggest strength but you need to figure something out or you're all screwed.
Then I see it. Leo´s ōdachi in the hands of one of the humans. There are only two people that stand between us and him. If we move fast then we could…... I turn around to look at my brothers who are desperately waiting for my orders.
“Leo, you think you can still use your sword?” I ask him with Leo looking behind me at the guy. He nobs at me and gives off his playful smile. “Only if you cover for me, bro.”
“You got it,” I say with a determined smile. I´ m turning my attention to Donnie and giving him a look of trust.
“Donnie you stay here and protect Mikey” I say to him and Donnie nobs back.
“Okay, b-be careful guys.” He says with a sad but determined face. With a solid plan to work with I charge out from our hiding and towards the enemy. The first guy, I knock out before anyone even gets the chance to react. I then take charge at the second one and with one hit he falls to the ground as well. Now the humans have noticed me and they aprotce me with their guns at hand. I duck from the darts that´s soaring toward me and I hit the guy with Leo´s sword and quickly separate them from one another.
“Leo” I shout and throw the sword at him who comes out from his hiding place and catches his sword. Leo waves his right hand in a circle and creates a blue portal. I know he has been working hard to perfect his portal creation but he still has had some problems with it and now I really hope that this isn't one of those times.
“Guys come on.” Leo shouts at us to follow him through the portal.
I barely get a chance to move towards him when even more humans surround me with chains at their disposal. The struggle goes on for a couple of minutes and I almost get them out of my shell. That is until I feel a stick on my right bicep. Taking a look I realize in horror that it's a red dart and the moment I see it it's the moment my head starts to feel heavy.
One of the humans takes the opportunity and succeeds in capturing my left wrist which he pulls in, making me fall to my knees.
I hear Leo scream my name and is about to run towards me when he gets blocked by some humans. He starts to step back towards his portal again with the humans creeping closer and closer to him. He looks at me with frightened eyes, desperately wanting to reach me.
“Guys, get out of here” I shout at them hoping that they can get to safety before it's too late but I see Leo shake his head in disagreement having tears in his eyes. “We are not leaving you.” He cries out in fear.
I try to rise up from the ground but there are too many humans around me now and they have thrown more chains on me to keep me down. I look at my bros when I realize something that makes my heart almost jump out my throat.
Why hasn't Donnie and Mikey come out of hiding yet? Shouldn't they have been close to Leo?
That's when I hear a big thump on my left side and when I take a look I see to my horror that Donnie and Mikey are lying there on the floor uncontactable.
No.
How did they get taken out? They were supposed to stay behind the crates.
I see that Donnie has bruises on both his arms and legs and a red dart on his right thigh. I also see Donnie holding his tech-bo in his left hand while his right hand is hugging Mikey for dear life. Wait. Did he…?
”DONNIE!” Leo screams once again and with his focus on his brother, he doesn't notice the human approaching him from the left and gets a good hit on Leo's left arm with some kind of bat. Leo's screams in pain that makes my heart turn to ice and my eyes start getting too heavy to keep open.
With semi blurry eyes I can see Leo's portal getting weaker and weaker and the fear that it's gonna disappear if we don't get in there soon is enormous.
This can't be happening. Are we gonna get captured by these humans? Nonononononono. I’m not gonna let my family be taken away by these guys. NO WAY.
I see the big guy approaching Donnie and Mikey with a creepy smile on his face as he bends down and grabs one of Donnie's wrists to lift him up.
And that's when something snapped inside of me.
“LEAVE THEM ALONE!” I roar in a furious and animalistic tone. The humans around me start to flinch as I rise from the ground and shake off the chains and the humans who held them away from me.
Those who didn't get thrown away start to back away from me in fear. Good. They should be scared of me.
I feel my whole body screaming in agony but I don´t care. Right now I can only see red and I know that it will not stop until I have saved my family.
I’m standing up with shaky but determent legs as I stare at the big guy who has a grip on Donnie's left arm. The look of worry in his face tells me that he knows that I’m coming for him.
I rush toward the enemy faster than I´ll have ever done before and hit the guy straight in the face. The guy soars a good distance away and crashes onto some crates where he lies unmovable with a bloody face. I look down and see both Donnie and Mikey breathing but still unconscious.
Turning around I see a couple of lackeys getting closer to a shaking Leo who is trying to keep his distance while also keeping his portal intact. His eyes are looking haviger the longer I stare at him. I also feel like my eyes get heavier as well. We can't keep up much longer.
But then, I get an idea. I grab Donnie and Mikey from the floor in one hand, aiming at Leo who is standing in front of his portal and throw both of them hard in his direction. Leo doesn't get the time to react before both Donnie and Mikey collide with him which makes all three of them fall into the portal with a crash.
Okay, not the best plan but hey, it worked. My brother’s are now safe at home. Though they are injured, (by the pizza supreme in the sky, I hope my throw didn't hurt them even more) they have both Pops and April who can take care of them. That’s all that could ask for.
My sense of victory disappeared quickly once I felt a ten full of drafts hitting my left arm and neck. I groan in pain as I put all my remaining energy to balance myself. This turns out to be pointless as I collapse on the ground with a thump. My body is so numb and I can barely lift my shaky arms from the ground.
The last thing I see before I fall into unconsciousness is Leo's portal disappearing in the distans and a bunch of blurry shadow people surrounding me. And to be honest, I´m scared but that doesn't matter. The important thing is that my brothers can't get hurt by these guys anymore.
I wish I could say the same thing about me.
