Hey guys! I know you are probably surprised to see a new story from me (since I declared I was done/on hiatus with this site) but I have evidently really really really missed posting for you. So... here's one of my favorite pieces! It's a long one, and a bumpy ride from the first chapter to the last. So get ready.
This story is focused on all of the guys, with a different focus every chapter or so. Just a warning that there is pretty intense torture and some mental breakdowns in here, so read at your own risk. Specific warnings will probably be at the beginning of each chapter.
WARNINGS: fighting, violence, regular Ninja Turtle stuff like beating people up in alleyways.
Here we go!
"Dude! No fair!" Michelangelo complained, trying to grab the slice of pizza Raph was hanging over his head. Raphael smirked and lowered it over his mouth. They were the same height, but with Mikey in a headlock, it was easy to hold the pizza out of his reach. Leo and Donnie, across the table, ignored the scene. Technically they weren't blatantly ignoring it, but both turtles were focused on something else. Donatello was poring over something on his laptop, occasionally typing a few words, but then falling back to his silent state, eating his pizza without looking at it which resulted in a small sauce stain on his cheek. Leonardo was, in a way, not ignoring his two younger brothers, but instead of intervening he watched in amusement, shaking his head.
"This is delicious," Raphael said after swallowing the first bite. "You sure you don't want any, Mikey?" Michelangelo whined and struggled to get out of the headlock, reaching again for his pizza.
"Leo! Make Raph let go!" he pleaded. Leonardo considered this for a moment, Raph took another bite. Mikey pouted. "Please! I'm going to starve to death!" he pleaded, Leo sighed.
"Ok, Raph, let go of Mikey," he said, Raph rolled his eyes but released the orange banded turtle. Mikey beamed and snatched a piece from the plate in front of Raph, who rolled his eyes again before finishing his current slice.
"Hey, Mikey," Raph said suddenly a few moments later, Mikey looked at him. "Can you grab me something?"
"What?" Mikey leaned closer, falling right into Raphael's trick. Raph grabbed his younger brother and spun around, slamming him gently against the wall. "Hey!"
"Give it back," Raph said simply, grinning. Mikey held up the half-eaten slice of pizza. Raph accepted it and released his brother again, stretching his arms as he finished it off as well. Mikey sent a playful glare at his brother and then leapt toward him, catching Raph off guard. The two crashed to the floor, nearly knocking Donatello over by tilting his chair.
"Hey!" the brown-eyed turtle protested, turning to watch them wrestle with a glare. "What are you two doing? What are you, eight-year-olds?"
"According to you, I'm mentally only six!" Mikey corrected, Raph pushed him off and jumped on top of him, pinning Mikey's arms to his sides. "Hey, get off Raph!"
"Mikey, Raph, that's enough!" Leo snapped, on his feet now. "Come on, since you two are obviously done eating, it's time for patrol. Maybe it will help you get all that crazy energy out." Raph rolled his eyes and got off of his brother, Michelangelo jumped up and darted to the pit to get his nunchucks. Donnie sighed and closed his laptop before following his brothers out to the turnstiles.
"You going without a weapon?" Raph asked incredulously, Donnie blinked, grinned sheepishly, and went to the lab to retrieve his staff. Once he returned, the four of them set out into the sewers.
"So, Leo, what's the plan for tonight?" Donnie asked, breaking the silence. Raph and Mikey looked up from their game of rock-paper-scissors to listen, Leo glanced back at them all.
"Well, we're mostly just watching for any problems." he decided, "I want to swing by Shredder's old place to make sure Tigerclaw hasn't turned it into something weird again, and maybe where TCRI is, to check on rebuilding processes."
"Me and Don could go check on TCRI." Raph declared, "You and Mikey could go by the shredder's place, get it done faster." Leo started up the ladder.
"I don't know, Raph. We aren't pressed for time or anything." He said as they climbed out of the sewers. Raph shrugged.
"I guess, then Let's go already!" Raph declared, pushing past Leo to scale the fire escape. "Race you guys to the fire station!"
"I'll get there first!" Mikey taunted, jumping up the escape from level to level, grinning.
"Not if I have anything to say!" Don declared, following Raphael up the ladder. "Longer legs, faster strides. It's science!" Leo rolled his eyes and followed up Mikey's way, getting to the rooftop as soon as Donnie did.
"Go!" Mikey declared, taking off toward the fire station, "I'm going to get there first!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Raph laughed, running after him. Don shrugged and followed, while Leo rolled his eyes. The leader in blue followed his three brothers across the rooftops, enjoying the feeling of wind across his face.
"Wait!" Mikey suddenly yelled, stopping, which caused Raph to run into him and Donatello to stumble. He grinned, "bye!" and took off again while they were still recovering.
"Mikey!" Raph shouted indignantly, running after him. Michelangelo laughed and ran faster, falling out of sight behind a water tank. Leo ran alongside Donnie, who wasn't really trying to race.
"This is nice." the purple masked turtle murmured, surprising Leo. "What? We're all getting along, you and Raph aren't arguing, Mikey's teasing us all, Raph's visibly happy for the first time in a while. It's nice." Leo glanced ahead at Raph and Mikey, well, mostly just Raph because Mikey was still out of sight.
"I guess you're right," he agreed. "Come on, let's catch up." They sped up, smiling as the wind whipped past them. Then they heard sounds of fighting in an alley ahead, Raph and Mikey weren't in sight.
"Oh great," Don muttered as they arrived to see their brothers fighting a group of what looked like gang members, but not any familiar ones. In fact, they didn't really look like a street gang at all, more like some kind of organization that had randomly decided to go fight Raph and Mikey, Leo hoped Raph hadn't jumped the gun and attacked innocents. He and Donnie jumped down, a ripple of surprise went through the group of people. Apparently, they hadn't known there was four of them.
"What are you doing?" Leo yelled at Raph, who was fending off a man who had a bat and was swinging wildly.
"It's not my fault!" Raph protested, ducking another swing. "Mikey hid down here and then these weirdo's attacked us!"
"Who are you calling a weirdo, freak?" One of the men called. Leo rolled his eyes and slammed his hilt onto the man's head, knocking him out.
"Let's get out of here!" Leo called, "we aren't trying to fight tonight!"
"Why? They started it!" Raph protested, kicking someone into a trash can. Leo rolled his eyes.
"Um, because one; I'm the leader and I say so and two; this is totally unnecessary!" he yelled, "Come on!" Mikey, Donnie, and Raph all frowned but forced their way toward him.
"What is this?" a voice asked, all the humans stopped fighting back.
"Sorry, we meant to deliver the reptiles to you, but then these freaks showed up!"
Leo narrowed his eyes, a woman stepped out of the alley doorway, her eyes scanning the scene.
"Come on, let's go!" Leo hissed, they backed away to the fire escape.
"Where are you interesting specimens going? And follow up question, who discovered these reptiles? They'll certainly fetch much more than the regular animals."
"Weirdo, no one discovered us!" Raph snarled, "let's get outta here!" everyone moved at once, the humans all went to apprehend them while the four turtles darted to the fire escape, or just lumped up the wall like Mikey.
"Who the heck is that?" Leo asked as they paused, gasping for breath, a block away.
"I don't know, never seen any of those creeps before!" Raph snapped, "Geez, Mikey, you just had to hide in the alley with humans in it?"
"They weren't there when I hid there!" Mikey protested, "besides Raph, you think you didn't enjoy the fight? Yeah right." Raphael had no response to that, so he just walked over to the edge of the building and looked down the street.
"Shell, how many of them are there?" he muttered, Leo and Donnie joined him and Leo groaned. Two large black vans were racing opposite directions, surrounded by a bunch of the humans who were on foot, obviously spreading out to find them.
"Dude! Not cool!" Mikey shouted, they all spun around, he was fending off a group that had scaled the fire escape. "Dudes, come help me out!" the three older turtles ran toward their little brother and weapons clashed.
"Who are you?" Leo yelled, kicking one back away from him, "what are you doing?"
"We work for Sangrey, but you ain't humans, how come you know English? Are you aliens? She's right you'd fetch a good price." multiple of them spoke, but to Leo, it all sounded the same. He sighed and fended them off.
"Come on, guys, let's get out of here!" he called, backing away. "More are coming, we need to lose them!"
"For once in your life, fearless, you're right!" Raph yelled, following Leo and Donnie across the roof, Mikey took the time to whack another enemy before following. Leo panted, zigzagging across the city across the rooftops.
"That was really weird." Donnie panted beside him, "it sounded like they were part of an animal smuggling ring, for reptiles or something. We would be popular in something like that, you know."
"Yeah, I'm valuable." Raph snorted. "Shell, there's more of them!" he pointed to the street where one of the black vans was speeding around a corner, more of the humans seemed to be looking for them by the second. Leo sighed.
"Come on, before they find us again we need to get into the sewers." he declared, "follow me." he jumped down into a deserted alley and slid open the manhole, he jumped in and immediately started running, he heard Raph slide the cover shut behind him and nodded in satisfaction, the humans evidently hadn't seen where they went.
"I think we lost them, Leo!" Donnie panted, they came to a halt, leaning on their knees to catch their breath. They often went on runs, but never like that.
"We're going to have to keep a low profile for a while." Leo sighed, looking up and meeting Raphael's green gaze. "Until they clear out of New York."
"But they're smuggling animals!" Raph protested, "that's a crime! Which means we get to kick their butts!"
"He might be right, Leo." Don pointed out, "it's our job to protect the city."
"We can do that in the shadows." Leo declared, "we know how to fight and take out enemies without being seen, we'll just need to practice that specifically more and not let them see us."
"This day's been great!" Raph declared, stretching his arms. "We hung out, ate pizza, and got to bust heads. I'm liking today."
"We won't be able to get pizza unless April or Casey get it." Donnie pointed out, "understand Mikey?" all three turtle's faces paled and they spun around. Mikey wasn't there.
"MIKEY!" Leo yelled, searching the gloom, "where are you? Is this a stupid prank?" no answer.
"Michelangelo!" Raph called, "where are you, Mikey?"
"Raph, was he with you when you closed the manhole?" Donnie asked, eyes wide, Raph scowled.
"I thought he was with Leo!" he protested, "I'm always the last one in!"
"I thought he was back with you guys!" Leo said, getting worried, "he's probably still up on the surface, shell. We have to go back and find him, those creeps are trying to capture us, come on!" he ran to the nearest ladder, followed by his brothers.
"If they lay one finger on him I'll kick them to Timbuktu!" Raph snarled as they climbed out onto the street.
"In the shadows, full ninja mode, don't split up!" Leo hissed, "the last thing we need is to get separated, we all need to be keeping half an eye on each other alright?"
"Got it, let's go!" Raph hissed, running through the shadows toward where the humans had been. "Mikey!" he called softly, Leo rolled his eyes and followed, footsteps lighter than a feather.
"He's probably fine, might even be at home by now," Donnie whispered, Leo nodded, but none of them really thought that. Mikey would most likely go to central park and play on the playground before going home. Leo nodded to himself.
"This way, he's probably by the park!" he hissed, both Raph and Donnie nodded, smiling slightly. They changed course toward the green spot in the middle of Manhattan and Leo kept scanning the area, but he had a horrible sinking feeling. When had Mikey been separated from them? He couldn't remember seeing the younger turtle since they were fleeing the humans on that rooftop. He shuddered and picked up the pace, Raph and Donnie falling into step so that only one small pitter patter could be heard.
"There they are!" a voice yelled, Leo cursed under his breath and grabbed his katana, then relaxed to see Casey and April. "What are you guys doing?" Casey asked, jumping off the water tower.
"Shh!" Donnie snapped, "I thought it was a school night!"
"So?" Casey shrugged, April rolled her eyes.
"Shh!" the three of them repeated in unison, Leo glanced at the street, luckily it was clear of any of the smugglers.
"Where's Mikey?" April whispered, they all looked at each other guiltily, "and what's wrong?" Raph turned a slow circle before replying, sais out.
"We ran into some weirdo's who think it would be nice to capture us and sell us on some kind of smuggling ring." He finally hissed, "there's like, hundreds of them, Mikey got separated, we're looking for him."
"Separated? Smuggling ring? What the heck?" April's eyes widened, "things were finally calm after the mess with Halloween!"
"Don't I know it." Leo sighed, "come on, you can help us look for him, you don't have to hide since you're humans, but we think it would be better if we stayed in full silent ninja mode. Hence all the shushing." both humans nodded.
"Yo, I'll go grab my bike and go through central park." Casey decided, "you guys stick to searching rooftops."
"Alright." Leo didn't voice his annoyance at Casey telling them what to do. "Come on, Raph, Don, we'll run by Murakami's." they both nodded and they took off, April followed Casey off the roof. They reached Murakami's in minutes and entered stealthily. Raph took up a vigil at the front window while Don and Leo scanned the restaurant. Mikey wasn't there.
"Hello, my ninja friends." Murakami welcomed.
"Have you seen Mikey?" Leo asked, weary. "At all?"
"No, is he alright?" the blind man asked, looking worried even with his glasses on.
"We don't know, we better go find him." Leo sighed, "sorry we can't stay Murakami, we'll probably be out of contact for a while too."
"Alright my friends, I wish you well." Murakami nodded and the three ninjas disappeared into the night.
"T-phone self destruct," Mikey said without thinking, wincing as the ropes wrapped around him dug into his arms. The man holding the device cried out and dropped it onto the floor of the moving van. He glared at Mikey.
"Little freak!" he snapped, "stop talking or I'll make you be quiet!"
"Why?" Mikey tilted his head, trying not to show how scared he was. "I mean, I can make noise without talking. Why don't I hum? Or, maybe I can give you a nickname, I'm great at naming things."
"Shut it up please, Ken!" the driver of the van snapped. "It's hard enough to look for the rest of them with this one yakking away in my ear!"
"Sorry, I could always uh…" Mikey gulped as he saw the guy, apparently named Ken (lame) pull out duct tape. "Shut up now, I guess." he fell silent for a moment, the guys were probably fine. They hadn't noticed when he got hit with that net, they'd gotten away. That was really all that mattered.
"You won't have to for long." Ken said, "I'm sure Carmina will want to talk to you." Mikey sighed softly and his shoulders sagged, the guys hadn't noticed when the net hit him, they didn't know what happened, which meant they didn't know where he was.
And to think it had been such a great day.
And that's that chapter! Thanks, guys, for reading. Please check out my Tumblr ( cobythinks) and my youtube channel, (Coby Thinks) if you're interested in getting to know me (the author) a little better. Please leave a review, even if it's garbled key mashing, and have an awesome day.
Until the next chapter,
-Coby
