AN: I completely lied when I said this was a two parter, this is definitely a three parter.

Anyways, thank you everyone for your patience as I work to get my stories updated. Since I was last here, my life has been hectic to say the least. I've since obtained new employment, and have extremely busy. My life is stabilizing now, which means I get to update everything! YAY! I hope you enjoy part two of "The Ropes" and I will do my best to get the conclusion up as soon as possible!


Learning the Ropes

Part 2


Donatello had a good start in his own opinion, despite the fact that Leo and Raph had shot up the ropes ahead of him. At least when it came down to attack time, Donnie would have energy, while Raph and Leo would be panting and tired by the time they hit to the top and strike their bells.

He was feeling pretty good about himself for a few minutes before the feeling of apprehension caused him to pause his climbing and glance down. He should have seen Mikey pass by now. The youngest was the fastest climber, there was no way he could have fallen behind.

From where he had progressed, he could see April steadily making her way up her rope, and even below her was the youngest turtle. He wasn't far up his rope at all, and even more curiously he was hanging upside-down and working with the end of his rope, tying it into a careful harness around his body, leaving a generous amount of the wet end tailing.

Donnie's breath caught as Mikey began tying the wet end of the rope into a tight knot. Blue eyes shot upward, causing Donnie to start. He couldn't see if Mikey was looking at him directly or not, but there was the bright flash of a grin and the small turtle flipped himself right-side up.

Donnie couldn't waste anymore time watching, Mikey had just turned the rope into a weapon, and if the smaller turtle made it to the top he would make short work of them all with that wet knot. He began climbing with a more desperate energy. If he wanted to win, he'd have to reach the bell before Mikey.


Leo was a bound behind Raph, and already their carefully formulated plan was proving to be a failure. They had both been counting on Mikey taking the lead, but the youngest was nowhere in sight.

It was Raph who reached the bell first, and when his fist struck, there was a loud peal before the bell broke from its mounting and tumbled below. Leo was second, flipping upside-down and ringing his bell with a flip and kick. The sounds from the two bells echoed throughout the tunnels, leaving an eerily hollow feeling in the air.

Leo hung there for a moment, his mind working on modifying their plan to adapt around Mikey's absence: Do they go after him, or should they simply commence with the second part of the plan and knock Donatello from the game early? It was when Leo turned to Raph to get confirmation on that idea, he realized the fatal flaw in the entire plan, right from the beginning.

Raph was no longer hanging beside him.

With sickening realization on what was going on, Leo turned himself around, just in time to take the full impact of Raph's body slamming into him, and with a cry he worked on keeping a solid grip on his rope while Raph tried to pull him off and toss him into the depths below.

Gripping his rope in both hands and wrapping his legs around for extra support, Leo managed to get a loop around one of the hothead's fists, entrapping it before it could knock him off the rope for good. It was a short-term measure; if you wanted to keep a bull at bay, you wouldn't tie it to your belt for very long. Still, it restricted Raph's ability to move, and Leo was not about to let the breach of their alliance go unpunished.

He needed to remove the traitor from the game immediately. Donnie was coming into sight now, and if Leo didn't want to be keeping an eye on all fronts at once, he needed to work faster.

If only he knew where Mikey was. The smaller turtle should have-

As Mikey came into view, darting up the rope like a spider on a web, Leo lost his focus, giving Raph the needed opportunity to escape. Before Leo could do anything more to correct this mistake, the impact of a fist to his cheek knocked him clean off his rope. The last thing Leo heard was the simultaneous sounds of Donnie and Mikey's bells ringing before he plunged into the cold water below.


In retrospect, it was a pretty dumb idea to break the pact and betray Leo. Raph thought this as he became fully aware of the situation he had put himself in. He eyed the two remaining brothers, one on each side as he swung on his rope. He knew immediately that they were going to team up against him. He might have stood a chance if Leo was still there, but Raph had taken what he had seen as a moment of opportunity and wiped his own partner from the competition. He didn't have a choice now, he'd have to fight by himself.

Mikey gave the knotted end of his rope a swing with a wicked grin. The youngest seemed to have made some sort of weapon out of the end of his rope. If it didn't knock Raph down with a hit, it would certainly be leaving some nasty bruises.

That made up his mind, Raph would need to take Mikey out first. He began swinging his legs to gain momentum when suddenly he was jerked to a halt. Raph turned his head and was greeted with a cocky smile from a purple-clad turtle. Just as Leo had done earlier, Donnie had taken a loop his rope and used it to bind him, this time around his ankle.

Raph kicked his leg out, and instantly felt the knot tighten; Donnie had been more creative with his noose than Leo was. He didn't have any more time to struggle; he could hear Mikey's rope swinging and he quickly heaved himself to the side to avoid the hard strike as his brother swung past.

He was expecting a second strike from Donnie, but it didn't come, and his green eyes searched furiously for where his brother had gone.

"Up here Raph!" Donnie was crouched on top of the pipes where the ropes had been hung, the genius's rope held in his hand, partially looped around the pipes. The same rope Raph was tied by.

Raph didn't fully understand what Donnie was doing until the purple-clad turtle jumped down from the pipe, still holding the rope attached to Raph's ankle. The momentum pulled him up by the knotted limb and left him hanging him upside-down in wide-eyed shock.

Donnie was hanging by his rope with a satisfied smirk, while Mikey had stopped his wild swinging to climb up beside him and hang upside-down as well, his feet woven around his rope like he didn't have a care in the world. The lopsided grin on the younger turtle made Raph furious.

With a thrust of his arms, he worked to gather momentum to grab the other turtle's rope harness. Mikey didn't seem the least bit concerned though, and simply mimicked him, which only infuriated Raph more. The muffled laughter from Donnie only served to fuel his growing rage.

Suddenly Raph wasn't swinging towards Mikey any longer, and his eyes went wide as the rope binding his ankle came loose and he fell. His hands burned from friction as he struggled to maintain a hold on his own rope, but eventually he managed to regain his balance.

Only long enough for Mikey to drop after him, landing a ringing blow to his face with his knotted rope and sending him in a spinning free-fall down into the water below with a heavy splash.

As Raph surfaced and spat out water with a curse, he stiffened as the clear peal of a bell rang from above.

April had made it to the top of her rope.