BtW The editor's job is still wide open...hinthint
The Disclaimer: I own no'ting. Nada. Zip.
'It's not that I don't love them, my family, my brothers and my father. No I love them; I would die for them in a heart beat. Sometimes though, sometimes...I just can't them. I start to feel itchy, like I have bugs crawling under my skin and shell. It's those times when I get in to the worst fights with Leo, it's not like I want to fight.' He cracked a small smile in dank sewer, no he was pretty sure that that was a lie, he loved to bother Leo. 'Loved getting under his skin, and make him feel just as itchy as he felt. But the fights always escalated, and he was tried. Just everything made him tired.'
"Well something's going to give I just don't know what" he said aloud with a tired smile.
Raphael was going topside, again. He just couldn't be down in the sewers any longer. As he rounded the corner that would take him to his favorite haunt, the lower east side. He saw something on the floor of the sewer crumpled and bleeding. As Raphael drew near, his eyes widened in shock. It was turtle, not a little pet one, but an actual mutant turtle, like him!
"Holy Shit..." He breathed He bent down to see if he was still alive when the stranger moaned and opened his eyes.
"Please, Help..."
Raphael bent down to pick the turtle up and was surprised to find that he weighed surprisingly little; now that he was having a better look at him he was sure that this turtle was even younger than him too.
"Help.."
Raphael felt madly annoyed that the turtle obviously didn't understand that he was going to help him. 'Stupid Turtle probably brain damaged or something' he thought.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm helpin' you ain't I? I picked you up didn't I?"
"No! Please the others they need...help...Please" He begged tears starting to form from his beaten in face, and with those parting words Raphael's strange turtle boy passed out.
Meanwhile back in the ninja turtles' lair, Donatello was tinkering with toaster oven and had been broken during Leo and Raph's latest disagreement. He sighs and put his screwdriver down in thought, 'Why God? Why do you always take the toasters and not the fondue sets'? He gave a slightly hateful glance over at the cupboard that housed the fondue set, 'Damn thing is useless' He hadn't even wanted to repair it, but Mikey's constant bothering about that damn fondue set. He fixed and now does Mikey even use it No!
"Bah!" Donatello shouted bitterly while going back to work on the toaster.
Michelangelo the youngest of the four brothers looked up wearily from where he was sitting watching cartoons,' Is Donnie going to start something now? Nah, he's going back to the toaster...wonder what that was all about..." Mikey couldn't help but always feel nervous after Leo and Raph's fights, they made him want to put his hands over his ears and scream lalalalala, but he didn't, he only laughed.
BANG! "Geeze what was that? Ralph, Oh my God!" Donnie, Donnie! Raph has somebody, they need help Donnie!" Mikey began to holler.
"My God, Raph, he's a mutant turtle like us, where did you find him?" Donnie questioned with barley contained curiosity.
"That won't matter for long if we don't stop his bleeding and get him stable now will it Braniac?" snapped Raphael.
"Oh yeah, bring him over to the sick-bay. (This is what they called the couch.)I'll get my medical supplies!" Donatello replied tensely.
'He's still breathing, that's a good sign I guess' Raph thought as he put the turtle boy down on the couch. One of the boxcar doors opened up, and master Splinter walked out.
"Who have you found, my son? While meditating I sensed a new and chaotic life force enter our home."
Raphael stood aside so Splinter could see the mangled turtle boy on their couch. At the same time Donatello began to clean and inspect the turtles' wounds.
"You see, Sensi, I was going to...go on patrol and when I got the sewer entrance and he was there, nearly pass out, but he managed to say something before he went out totally. Something about helping the others, but I don't know what that means, or if it means anything at, maybe if he was just sayin' stuff..."
"Others? You mean there could be more like him, like us?" Leo stated as he came from the dojo covered in sweat, but obviously aware of everything that had been happening since Raph's return to the lair.
"Donnie, how does he look? Is he going to make it?" Mikey asked, concerned.
Donatello looked up, paused in his efforts to bandage and administer to the turtle boy's wounds. Looking back down at the last gash that he needs to stitch up, he started in on it and with a heavy sigh replied,
"I dunno Mikey, he's lost a lot of blood and from the looks of some of these wounds he has been in this condition for more than a few days. It's amazing he was even alive when Raph found him, let alone coherent enough to say something. After I've finished stitching him up and checking for any broken bones or sprains, there is really nothing I or anyone else can do. It will all be on him."
"So I saved him from a just bleedin' out in the sewer and dying, just so we could patch him up and he could be a vegetable on our couch for the rest of his not really life? Huh figures... finally find someone like us and he has more in common with broccoli then us...I should have left him to die."
"Raphael!" Splinter called sharply, "You saved a life, and there is nothing more honorable than that. Never think otherwise. Trust that you brother will heal our guest."
'The Great Donatello, fixer of broken toasters, fondue sets, and mutant turtles." Donatello sighed and stood up, "He has a sprained ankle, and some pretty deep gashes down his plastron, face and thigh. They should heal now that I've stitched them up, but what worries me is how clean the wounds were. Straight and stitch-able. This guy wasn't just beaten up by some passing punks, he was sliced and by the looks of it by some one that knew what they were doing."
Leonardo's eye squinted in the direction of the currently comatose 'guest', "So what you're saying is, is that someone was trying to kill him?" Leonardo walked over to a lazy boy that they had collected one trash day and sat down. "We should probably assume, that whoever tried to kill him is also aware of other mutant turtles, and that they will probably try to kill us to. We should probably limit our topside trips to only necessary ones for while, just until this cools down. A few weeks, maybe months, tops."
Raphael tensed up as soon as Leo's words were out of his mouth "What?! No way, nuh uh, not going to happen buddy boy! I AM NOT going stop going topside when I want, just because some nut job decided to shank broccoli turtle over there! How do we know it wasn't just some really drunk and pissed off hobo?"
"You know Raph's got a point Leo..."Mikey pipped up in small voice,"We don't know if this was a professional job, we just know that it was a knife that got this dude here, and that the person doing the slashing was either pretty good, or really lucky. That doesn't seem like enough evidence to put us on house arrest. Besides, if we're stuck down here for that long...how would I get my pizza fix?"
"I have to side with Raph and Mikey, on this, I couldn't stay away from the junk yard for that long. I'd go nuts. What would I do for entertainment, take everything electronic apart and put it back together...multiple times?!" Donatello stated with distaste thinking that maybe if they were going to be stuck down in the lair for a while that maybe he could...'improve' upon that stupid fondue set...
Splinter cleared his throat, "My sons, it is my opinion that at this point, we are not the target. And I do not know if we will be, but there is no point in worrying about what tomorrow will bring. We cannot change what is destined to happen. So I believe we should be cautious, but not fearful of journeying topside."
"Well I still think we should just be careful, and at least not go topside solo for a while"
Raphael snorted," Well you know what Oh Fearless Leader? I'm gonna go anyway. Try an' stop me!"
With those parting words Raphael stalked out of the lair and into the sewers, leaving his brothers and father with the still unconscious guest.