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"Super Turtle Brothers"
Prologue
Raphael stood in the doorway to his room, wondering if he could leave yet. Splinter had sent him there for putting a sai through the Nintendo, but he could help it! Mikey was so annoying when he won.
Donatello finished hooking the cables up on the old 8-bit system. He didn't much like it when Raph broke things, but he figured he wouldn't know half of what he knew about electronics if it weren't for his brother's tantrums.
Mike pushed the button on the system and squeaked happily when the Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt logos appeared on the cracked TV screen without any strange characters. "Yay! It works!" Mike grabbed the controller and jumped up onto the couch. "Dude Donnie, you rock."
"That's because I'm a genius."
"Hell yeah, wanna play?"
"Sure, but I'm Luigi."
"That's okay, I'ma Mario!" Mike said with a cheesy, supposedly Italian accent.
Mike started playing, and the semi-annoying Mario music was soon the only sound in the lair. Raph looked over at his sensei. Splinter was sitting in his armchair, eyes closed.
"Can I come out yet, Splint?"
Splinter opened his eyes and raised his brows at his red-masked pupil. "Have you calmed down?"
"Yeah." Raph said. He knew what Splinter wanted him to, "Sorry Mike. Sorry Don."
"S'okay dude." Mike said as he bounced slightly on the couch, playing the game, "Take that you goomba! Fire powah! DAMNIT! I died!"
"Whatever." Don said. He knew Raph didn't really mean the apology and this wouldn't be the last time he'd be fixing the Nintendo because of Raph.
Splinter nodded his approval towards his son before heading out of the room. Raph came out of his room and sat behind Donatello on the couch next to Donatello. Don sighed because he knew Raph within punching distance could only mean trouble for both him and Mike.
Raph sat there for some time watching Don play. Donatello was all the way to world 2-3 and he hadn't come close to dying yet. Mike was bouncing next to him impatiently and Raph knew if his little bro didn't get a chance to play soon, Mike would start buggin' him. So he reached over and as Don came to a difficult jump Raph flicked Don on the back of the head.
"Ow!" Don complained as Luigi plunged to his death, "Hey no fair! Raph! You made me die! Restart!"
"No way Don." Mike said "You know the rule, if it's a Raph distraction related death, it's still valid." (Doesn't it disturb you that Raph does this so often that they have a RULE concerning it?)
"What'd I ever do to you?" Don said, rubbing the back of his head and looking up at Raph.
"You were borned." Raph replied snidely.
"I was hatched Raphael, not born. So were you."
"Shut up." Raph said, smacking Don on the head once again.
Don gave him a dirty look, but decided against fighting with Raph further. Fighting with Raphael was like banging your head against a brick wall.
The lair was quiet except for the video game music and the squeaky breathy sounds Mike was making in sequence with the hard moves that his Mario was trying to do in certain parts. This too was starting to annoy Raph. After telling Mike once or twice to cut it out without results, Raphael decided to drive his point home by punching Mikey in the arm.
"OW!" Mike shouted, and Mario promptly fell down a hole on the screen and died "Damnit! I died! No fair."
"You know the rule." Don said smugly as Luigi appeared on the screen again to battle the flying fishes.
"Stupid rule." Mike grumbled, then he turned to Raph "What'd I do?"
"You were breathing like that again!"
"Oh I'm so sorry, princess Raph!" Mike said sarcastically, "I'll try not to breathe anymore."
Raph growled at Mike, then proceeded to ignore him and watch Donnie play.
When Don had gotten up to world 3-2, Raph chanced to look over at Mike. Mike was red, almost purple in the face from holding his breath. Raph smacked him again. "Damn it Mikey! Cut it out!"
"Jeez!" Mike said "You smack me and tell me not to breathe, and then when I don't you smack me again!"
"GAH!" Raph threw up his hands in frustration "No one in this family understands me!" Raph stood up and tried to stomp out of the room, but tripped on the Nintendo cords.
The screen went all funky and weird binary characters started buzzing across it. Don sighed and went to push the "reset" button.
The moment he did, everything went dark for all four turtles in the room. They were no longer able to feel their bodies. Or anything else for that matter. What was going on? It was as if they could think, but they were just floating consciousness. Fear entered all four minds when they saw a logo scroll in front of them. It was similar to the Super Mario Brothers logo, only green instead of brick colored. And instead of the normal title, it said... "Super Turtle Brothers"
To be continued....
Author's Notes: Well this fic is a LOT easier to understand if you've played Super Mario Brothers for the NES. The reason it's called "8 Bits of Fun" is because the machine that sucks them in (the Nintendo) is commonly called an "8-bit system" I think it has something to do with the processor. So, which title should I use? hmmm maybe you guys should wait until "level 1" is up and choose then... It IS hard to play video games with Raph around sometimes. With his current state of mind (being as grumpy as he is) he should PROBABLY leave the lair, but he can't.. i think it's because he's grounded. Oh, and Donnie sez to me "Hey, If Raph's the one being punished with this grounding, then why are WE the ones to suffer?" heh, one of the great questions to ask the oracle, Donnie ;) This is a departure from my normal work that is usually more factual and more serious, but this is ending up being a fun fic to write, so don't be surprised if it's finished before "Shattered Mirrors" is. (Although I *AM* still working on that fic!)
A Cracked Shell Production.