Doing more awful stuff to Raph. I've been getting my OC villains from watching Cold Case Files. I might need to quit that. I hope it doesn't disturb you all too much. I find real villains to be more scary and compelling than cartoon/ comic villains. No offense, canon bad guys.

It was actually pretty similar to how he'd grown up. Trapped underground in a sewage filled hole, only occasionally seeing the sun through the grates overhead.

Three days. At least. He could live with the hunger that long. He'd gone longer.

But he wasn't fond of the sores. His cuts were festering and now a few were dripping puss. Clearly infected and vaguely foul smelling. Just another bad smell.

The fever didn't feel great. His head hurt in a dull throb and even though he was hot, he still shivered and no matter how he moved, he couldn't will it to stop.

He'd spent hours meditating the day before. Nothing better to do. He didn't want to listen to the cars going by or the children laughing in the next yard. Leo would be proud. It turned out he could meditate as long and successfully as his brown-nosing brother. He just needed to be trapped in a life threatening situation with a high fever and no outside stimuli.

Were they even looking for him? He moved his stiff knees a few times and flexed his muscles, trying to keep them alive. The water rippled and spread vapors afresh around the casket.

"It isn't really a casket." Scott was talkative. He liked to talk about himself. He liked to ask Raph questions that he wouldn't answer. "I got some old shelves from work and soldered them together. I hope it holds up."

"You have a job?" Raph asked. "What kind of place would hire a maggot like you?"

Scott laughed and the walkie-talkie blurred. It was hard to keep it out of the inch or so of water in the bottom of the box now and Raph was afraid that the wiring would short. "You're not too terribly social huh? You don't do anything but cuss at me and threaten me. That's really funny, since you're so helpless."

"I've ever been anything, it ain't helpless," Raph said. Useless was more like it. "Well, fine. You think I'm not sociable. Let's talk about something nice then. You got a girlfriend?" He thought he already knew the answer.

There was a noticeable pause at the other end. "I had one once. Didn't work out."

"Was she put off when she found out that you like to mutilate animals?"

"Actually, she was put off when I killed her and dumped her in a quarry."

Raph's stomach tightened. He could see the image of this guy dumping her limp body into a pile rock. Just lying out there in a wasteland, like she was nothing. "Why'd you do that?"

The walkie-talkie clicked as Scott turned it off.

He'd confessed quite a few things. Scott assumed that Raph wouldn't get out of there alive and so there was no point in hiding anything from him. Raph knew that. It didn't matter. Either he would die down there with Scott's secrets or he would be rescued and Scott would be taken care of. There wasn't any point worrying about it. He knew the guy's name was Scott Walkley and that he was from South Bend, Indiana. He used to chase Amish buggies on the way to school. He tortured his neighbor's cat when he five years old. He'd had to move to New York because he was fired from a veterinary clinic for killing the animals.

The walkie-talkie clicked back on just as Raph laid it on his plastron and he quickly held it back to his mouth.

"What's your name?"

"Why?"

"You asked my name. Now I want to know yours."

He paused. It was a really bad idea to tell him his name. "Mary Sue."

"That hurts my feelings, Raphael. That's what it says on your phone screensaver anyway. And who is this Leo? You mumble about him in your sleep and you've had about twenty calls from him. Is he your boyfriend?"

His head swam with fury.

"Oh, look at this redheaded chick. April? Let's give her a call."

He could hear the phone dialing. It rang. April's voice said, "Hello? Raph? Where are you?"

Scott didn't say anything. Raph's face was already warm with fever and it grew uncomfortably hot. His eyes blurred and his vision grew dark as his blood pressure changed quickly.

"APRIL!" He yelled as loudly as he could.

"What? I can't hear you. Did you drop the phone again?"

"APRIL, CALL LEO! I'M TRAPPED!"

Scott laughed as April said, "You're what…? Who was that? You'll have to speak up."

"I'M TRAPPED IN A BOX UNDERGROUND!"

The phone beeped as Scott hung up. "That's enough. I don't think she heard you. Maybe I should call her back and set up a date."

"ANY PART OF YOU THAT TOUCHES HER, YOU AIN'T GETTING BACK!" Raph bellowed. He choked. His throat was so dry.

"Well, Raphael. You hurt my feelings again. I might talk to you when you decide to be more civil." The walkie-talkie went dead.

He'd gotten so close and it was useless. He closed his eyes and tried to block out the blinding frustration with meditation.

If Don had been locked in this box, he would have made something out of the walkie-talkie. A bomb maybe. But what use would a bomb be, unless you wanted to blow yourself up? He would make a flare. And then somebody would see it and rescue him. No, he would link it to their cell phone frequencies somehow. This walkie-talkie only had three channels and two were blank.

If Leo were in the hole, he would think of some ancient ninja technique that Raph had never learned because he forgot, wasn't there for that day's lesson or thought was too stupid to do properly. He would manage a perfect MacGuyver-style escape.

If Mikey… no, he couldn't think of that.

There was something about endless meditation that him feel like he'd turned to jelly. Like all of his muscles had dissolved and his bones and brain had melted. It was actually a cruel exercise. As soon as he was truly peaceful, he opened his eyes and saw the lid of the box a few inches away from his face and could smell the festering water and urine that he was lying in. He pulled off his leather elbow and knee pads. They were moldering in the humidity and he had a painful rash under them. He hadn't been conscious long enough to notice. Raph tossed them at the end of the box. He wasn't wearing his bandanna or belt or any of his equipment. He supposed that Scott was playing with it, along with his sais and phone.

He stared the lid of his box for what could have been minutes, but was probably hours because the sun had gone down when he finally looked out the pipe to gauge the time. There was a lawnmower going in the distance.

Closed his eyes to sleep. He'd meditated. Now he would sleep.

"It's so cold!" Don said, teeth chattering dramatically to gain sympathy.

Raph opened his eyes, but didn't pull his head out of his blankets to see his brother. He could hear him shivering next to the bed.

"Can I come in there with you?"

"Why didn't you go sleep with Mikey or Leo?"

"You're warmer."

Raph moved over, but didn't say anything. He felt Don's cold feet rubbing against his legs as he cuddled into his pocket of body heat under the blanket. "Why don't you just fix the heater?" Raph mumbled.

"I tried. I need a new thermowell."

He rolled over to see Don. "I killed somebody today."

Don's legs twitched against his. "That sucks."

"Well, he stuck Mikey. How's he doing?"

"Whining. But he's fine. It wasn't bad."

Don was quiet so long that Raph thought he was asleep and finally shut his own eyes.

"You could have knocked the guy out." He said it quietly, as if he were afraid Raph would yell at him.

The scene played through Raph's mind again. He was fighting with his back to Mikey and could hear him laughing as he did something silly and knocked a foot ninja off his feet. He was always glad to put them in undignified positions. Then he heard him gasp loudly.

Raph turned to see a small knife in his brother's stomach. Then he snapped the offender's neck. Just reached out, grabbed his head and twisted. Should he have taken the time to deliberate? "If I'd hesitated, then Mikey could have been killed. Who knows what he could have done next."

"He might not have done anything." Don was a little louder now.

"He might have pulled it out and stuck it in two or three more times while I was wondering if this was a killing situation. I'm not a murderer, okay. I don't just go around killing because I like it. I'd rather be a killer than see one of you guys get killed. Now shut up and sleep."

Raph shouldn't have said that. He knew that Don hated seeing anyone killed, no matter the situation and he'd always gotten the job done. None of them had ever died because of it. Raph knew all of his arguments were hollow. Someone who could stick a knife in Mikey's stomach didn't deserve to live.

It was wet. Hadn't the bed been warm and dry?

"Twenty seven what?"

Whose voice was that?

"Twenty seven what? You said a number."

"I've killed twenty seven," Raph muttered as his eyes opened and the throbbing pain in his head returned. He shifted his head from the place it had been pressing onto the hard metal. He knew there was a bruise. It was Scott. He shouldn't have said that.

Scott made a sharp sound, like a gasp. "You're a better killer than I am. Congrats. Maybe you can give me some pointers."

"Sure." Stop killing. That was his advice. "Don't lock guys up who are better than killers than you are. It's bad for your future."

"Do you like it? Killing?"

Did he like killing? He liked knowing that they were dead. He liked the fight, but not necessarily the kill. Sometimes he savored the death. Sometimes he understood the evil in their hearts and knew that the evil was aimed at someone he cared about. Then it was a good moment. Knowing that he had stamped it out for them. "I can take it or leave it. I have other hobbies."

"Who were these twenty seven? Were they girls?"

Who was this guy? What a piece of trash. "They were all guys. And they were all hurting my… people…"

"Your Leo and your April and these others on here?" He could hear his phone beeping as it was turned on. "Don and Mikey and Sensei and Casey? You don't know many people, do you? I want to know who this Leo is. He's called about twelve times this morning. Doesn't take no for an answer, huh?"

"He'll gut you like a fish when he finds you," Raph said. "Maybe fillet you."

"He's a killer too?"

Raph hesitated. He'd never thought of Leo as a killer. He'd killed. But he didn't… "No, he isn't a killer."

He clicked off the walkie-talkie. Scott wasn't worth talking too. He was just filling his head with poison anyway. It was better to be alone than listen to that.

Raph's voice echoed in the metal box. He should call it a coffin. He was never getting out of this thing. He slammed his fist into the lid again. Was it better to meditate to death? Just lying there doing nothing? Totally useless. It didn't make any difference if he screamed until he shredded his throat. Nobody would hear or else they would hear and wouldn't come. And if they came, what would they find? He would be taken away to a lab and dissected for his trouble. What a rescue. He couldn't stay down here without dying and he couldn't be rescued without getting autopsied.

The roar rose until his throat ached and his fists hit the lid until blood spattered and his knuckles cracked.

The guttural screaming eventually turned into words. "I'M SORRY! JUST LET ME OUT! I'M SORRY! WHERE ARE YOU?"

But he didn't cry. He never did that. And then it was quiet again. The stars were out. There was a nice breeze coming in and he leaned his face towards it, trying to keep his eyes away from the water.

Was that a siren? It definitely sounded like one.

Scott was outside, talking to someone.

"Just put in a drainage system."

Drainage system? Was he outside of the city?

Raph was completely still and quiet. He couldn't let a cop find him.

The cop laughed with Scott at the price of septic tanks and the smell coming from the drainage field, which must be what he was blaming Raph's smell on. Did it smell that bad? He didn't really even notice anymore. He'd only pissed those three times and that was it.

And then the sound of the car door echoed faintly and the car drove away.

Raph wiped the sweat from his face and tried to stay focused through the fever and ignore the burning in his body as he closed his eyes to sleep again.