Two turtles tiptoed carefully from a shadow to another in their silent lair. It would have been easier to stop hiding and yell their enemies to come out and fight fair and square. It would have been much more to Raph's likings. But that was not an option, because he knew their enemies were sly and they would never agree to those terms. No, they would shoot him and Mikey from the shadows and they wouldn't probably even see where the firing came from. This had to be done stealthy.
"Where do you think they are, Raph?" Mikey whispered glancing around and holding tightly on his gun. Raph also peered at the lair. It was a mess, the furniture was flipped over, some of the lamps were broken so it was quite dim and the colors… sheesh.
"Don't know, Mikey. If I did, we'd be shootin' at them, not hidin' here like some cowards!" The red cladded turtle's voice started to rise from the irritation, so his brother clapped a hand over his mouth and made a gesture for him to quiet down. Raphael took couple deep breaths in before giving a little nod for Mikey to remove his hand from his mouth. "Sorry, gettin' a little frustrated."
"Tell me about it. They've been toying with us the whole time. At this rate we'll lose and I hate losing, almost as much as you do."
"Yeah and if we lose this it ain't gonna be pretty", Raph said grimly.
Suddenly they heard rattle from upstairs. The two shared a look before starting their way towards the source of the noise. It was a trap, no doubt, but they couldn't just wait themselves to root on the floor in some hiding place, they had to beat the lurking threat.
They were sure the noise had come from Michelangelo's room, so that's where they headed, but they didn't enter immediately. Raph was standing on the left side of the door and Mikey on the right, waiting. It was all quiet again. There were lots of stuff lying on the floor as a result of earlier strife with their enemies, one being Raph's pillow. Giving a sign for Mikey to be ready, he grabbed the pillow, threw it in the room as a distraction and ran in with his brother, ready to shoot. But there was no one to shoot.
The orange cladded turtle's room being naturally messy, it was now under a chaos. Raph wondered if their whole lair was a jumble, but it didn't worry him much at the moment. What worried him was that they had just walked into an obvious trap and there was still nothing there.
"I don't like this", Mikey whined and for once Raphael agreed with him.
Just then the hothead got a terrible feeling that something bad was going to happen. He had time to ready himself for an attack when they heard a voice from the ceiling: "I do."
It was the blue wearing ninja with shukos spikes. He dropped himself down and started firing at them. Raph and Mikey quickly jumped out of the way and shot back, but he was already gone.
"Dang! We can still reach him! Come on Mike!" Raphael was almost out of the room, when the other spoke.
"Raph… I think… you have to go without me."
Slowly Raphael turned back to his brother, his heart skipping a beat. The usually goofing turtle was on his knees and Raph could have sworn he was a little pale. After the first shock, he rushed to his brother and saw where he had been shot. The red liquid was running on the heavily breathing turtle's plastron.
"No", Raphael whispered when the realization hit him. His brother couldn't go on anymore, this was it for him. "Ya just hang in there, buddy", the turtle with red bandana said soothingly. "I will get them, I promise. I will get Leo for doin' this and then I will get Don for plannin' all this on us. I will get those two excuses of a turtle!"
Mikey gave him a small smile before his eyes slowly closed and body fell limp. Gently Raphael lowered the immovable turtle on the floor and stood up full of anger. This was not going to end for Leo and Don's favor, no way in shell! They were going to pay!
Taking Mikey's gun from the floor where it had dropped, Raph headed to the door, but before he could reach it, he heard once again a voice behind him. And he knew this was the end. He was on the other turtle's aim already and there was no time for him to turn, aim and shoot. He knew from the first syllable that he had failed his brother; he had broken his promise before he could even exit the room. And it had only taken twenty seconds.
"You are making this way too easy, Raphie." And then he shot. Even if Raphael knew it was impossible, he wasn't going to give up without a fight. But when the bullet hit him on the side, he dropped his guns and fell on his knees, feeling numb.
Donatello walked from behind the boxes, where he had been hiding at the end of the room, to Raphael. "It's settled then. You lost." The grin on the brainiac was splitting his face.
"Well, that took a good while", said Leonardo walking back into the room and to Mikey to offer his help.
"Seriously, dude, I thought you promised to avenge me. And couldn't you guys have shot me with any other color? Orange maybe? That's more of my thing, red is Raph's", the goofball started immediately when he got up.
"They're paintball bullets, you lamebrain, it's not like we can decide what color hits you", Don said shaking his head.
Raph stood up starting to feel annoyed. "And who told you to get shot in the first place?" He directed his words at the orange cladded turtle, who answered showing his tongue. "It's the brainiac and fearless we were dealin' with, ya seriously think I could've outsmarted them without a decoy?"
"Oh, so I'm just a decoy to you?"
"Calm down you guys, it was just a game. And besides, you can enjoy each other's company while you are doing the dishes for the next two weeks", Leo said the unusual mischief in his voice and high-threed with Donny.
Raph was definitely not happy with this outcome, but the things were about to get worse. A shout: "BOYS!" suddenly rang through the lair. Master Splinter was home and he did not like the mess they had made.