Disclaimer: Ninja Turtle Owner I am not a

'Faster, have to run faster!' I continued to mentally scream at myself, yet no matter what my mind demanded me feet refused to comply.

I sincerely hoped that my brothers were okay, but as of right now I couldn't worry about that.

By the time I reached central park my brain was totally on auto pilot on what I was supposed to do, and I had still yet to lose my pursuers. What did it take to get these guys off my shell?

I knew I needed to get to the roofs, these guys that were chasing me couldn't follow me up there easily, but with all my concentration on not falling over from pain, climbing was out of the question.

Going underground to would be difficult, there was infection to think about in an open wound, plus the same problem of how to get down without further injuring myself.

I slowed slightly when I realized where my feet were headed, a familiar neighbor hood with a familiar face. I might have cried with relief, acceptable since none of my brothers were around, but I had no time for such luxuries as that.

Running around to the side of the building I came up with the same dilemma of before, how to get up there? My breath wouldn't stop coming out in gasps, product of running in my state, and I couldn't even take the risk of calling up to get attention.

Besides, I was ninja, yelling out for the night to here me was kind of the opposite.

My pursuers had not lost my trail, there shouting and cursing from behind told me I had seconds to make a decision.

I think my friends were developing a sense of when we were in danger as much as any other member of my family, how else would Casey have known to come down the stairs hockey mask and bag in place.

Now that I wasn't being forced to deal with this all on my own, I was able to get a quick kick in here and there, but Jones managed to do most of the work.

After all of the alien league freaks were gone I finally allowed my self the luxury of passing out against the wall.

"Woah!" Casey yelled, lunging forward and grabbing my shoulder to prevent my total falling over. "Dude what happened?"

I was fixing to answer, but couldn't stop the groan from escaping my mouth as I clutched at my bleeding side.

"Err, right Case, stupid questions later," he spoke for me, then hefted one of my arms around his neck and attempted to drag me towards his back door.

I tried to protest that we couldn't just use the backstairs, people could see me, but my breath was hitching so badly from the excretion I couldn't get it out.

The torturous walk up to his fourth floor place was a black blur I never wanted to remember, and I didn't regain my sense of whereabouts until I was hastily thrown onto his sofa.

I vaguely heard a, "Hang tight dude," and maybe something about vodka before he disappeared from sight, and I was too exhausted to protest.

He came back in a few short minutes with plenty of rags, and a bottle of some sort. He dressed the wound first while I was still sort of out of it, and then quickly shoved the bottle into my hand.

When I didn't do anything but stare at it he gave me an odd look, but helped heft the liquid to my lips.

The sharp sting of the alcohol brought the world back into a clear picture, but also left me coughing and begging for air again.

I heard laughter from my side and would have whacked him had I any control of my body right now.

My friend was so consumed with his joy that the words were barely understandable, "Man Raph, you act like you've never had this stuff before!"

Another round of coughing ensued, but this one ended in a snort of mirth.

Wow he actually couldn't tell I wasn't Raph! That was so totally hilarious! I knew April could, because she'd caught me once at the farm house roaming around at night. She'd known it was me even in the bare light of a fridge; I hadn't had to talk or anything.

Yet Casey had dragged my shell all the way up here in bare florescent lighting and hadn't figured out which brother I was.

I looked up at him and grinned widely, but did not speak. I wanted to see how long I could play this out.

Casey didn't seem to notice, he was still talking, "I mean shesh dude, you act like this is the first time you've come over here for medical treatment. I know Don's good and all, but I also know how you hate it when your bro's fuss over you. So what happened? Why you bleeding, and where's the others?"

All excellent questions, but if I answered him it would so give up the gig. I was still stuck on the fact that Raph came here when he was injured instead of coming home. How often did Raph drink here?

With a deep sigh I started, "Well, we were tracking some foot tards and managed to find them in an old abandoned ware house. You know, you'd think they'd come up with more originality in there hiding places, I mean seriously those kind of places should just have big ass signs on there doors stating 'Here's some bad people, come and arrest us'."

With every word I'd spoken plus the ramble at the end, Casey's face had slackened in shock, then turned red in embarrassment. He obviously knew he wasn't talking to Raph anymore. I wanted to ribe him for that, but I was now caught up enough in my story that I'd do it later.

"So we get there right, and there trying to unload all of this stuff. So Raph jumps out and starts fighting and we all have to jump in to save his shell. I ended up by a window and I don't know why but the building exploded. You ever notice that places tend to explode at the worst times. I mean why couldn't the place go boom while we were still outside, but no it just had to wait until we were inside and fighting. I got blasted out of a window and landed on my side, probably how I cracked my ribs and got such a nasty cut."

I settled into the couch cushions and rummaged around for my phone, then remembered that I didn't have my belt on. Come to think of it I didn't have my pads or even my bandanna on. Damn.

Casey cleared his throat and continued to eye me with an air of skepticism as he asked, "Okay, but where are the others, and why are you naked?"

The question was so unexpected that I actually burst out laughing, causing more pain to enter my side. Clutching the tender skin between plastron and shell I heaved, "well I took off my head band to tie around my side, but that fell off. When those haters showed up they managed to tear off my padding before I could scramble away. Suppose I lost my weapons and belt back at the explosion."

I was starting to feel sleepy again, but Casey was having none of that. He practically force fed me another drink of that poison, and watched silently as I gagged on it again. It had the desired affect however, I was awake again. Giving me enough juice to answer, "As for where my bro's are I'm not entirely sure. Know I saw Raph darting around after wards, but I was real confused and stuff so I couldn't call out. That stupid H.A.T.E club caught up to me to soon so I couldn't find out about the others. Suppose I just subconsciously came here since it was the closest shelter."

I'd managed to ignore the crushing grief and fear I had for the others this long, but now that I was on a comfortable couch and reliving the memory's it was all starting to poor back. With a sense of urgency I tried to sit up, but froze when Casey appeared directly above me. "Freeze turtle boy. I'll go out and find the others, you are going to stay here and drink Vodka."

I scowled up at him and an infamous fight would have commenced had his shell cell not gone off in that exact second. I watched with eager eyes as he brought it to his ear, but could not make out who it was on the other end. "Raph! Oh god you're okay. Wow slow down bu-damn would you listen to me for a sec. Yeah I know, yes that's what I said. Listen, he's here. Yea right here in my living room. Yep, he told me everything that happened. O, you got the others with you, all of them? Well duh, I figured that one out all on my own. Yea you guys should probably get over here, I mean he's injured but he's not goin to die anytime soon. Of course, 'k I'll see you guys soon."

I felt a burst of relief wash threw me at that first word, and now I couldn't stop the stupid grin on my face. My brothers were all right, everything was going to be fine. I just hoped my brothers could get my stuff back, or somehow find me some new and better ones. I'd made fun of Casey for saying it, but it really did make me feel kind of naked without all of it. I wonder if this is how normal turtles feel without there shells? This brought an interesting question to mind, "Hey Casey, if a turtle looses his shell, his he homeless or naked?"

So I suppose it could be any of them except for Raph, but I was thinking of Mikey while writing this. No reason in particular, except maybe that he's my favorite turtle boy. Let me know how this turned out.