alrighty! here'schapter two, we're halfway through! hehe, rhymes, anyway, read and enjoy!
Mikey gasped in pain, partly for what his brother had just suggested, and partly because Raph hadn't called him family, he knew there was a reason, but it still hurt.
"Raph! No!" Donnie shouted, "we need you...our, uh, leader." Mikey rubbed his head in confusion, but stayed silent as pip's boot connected with his chest, flinging him backward. Mikey watched in horror as Pip lifted Raph into the air, a shredder like gauntlet shining as he prepared to kill his brother.
Leo panted, sprinting towards the docks, a few more blocks. Just a few more blocks. He jumped onto a fire escape, not checking to see if karai was still beside him, her breaths were enough, she was just as exhausted as he was. As they neared the docks, he heard a cry that chilled him to the bone.
"Y-you killed him!" Donnie's voice shrieked, "Raph!" Leo's eyes widened.
"No." he whispered, "please no."
"He isn't dead yet! Imbecile!" a cold voice snarled, "just...dy-ing"
"Pip." karai whispered beside him, "oh brother what have you done?" leo snapped out of his horror and started running again, the sound of his footsteps changing as he ran onto the docks, wooden planks creaking as he abandoned his ninja training in an attempt to reach his family, but he stopped again when he heard mikey.
"Pip, dude, why do you even hate us? We never did anything to you!"
"You…" pip's voice sounded uncertain, then turned cold. "You work with the man who killed my brother."
"What?" Mikey asked, inching to his brothers side, "we'd never work with a murderer! We've only killed once, and that was the shredder."
"How should i believe you?" Pip snarled, "you know Christopher Bradford right?" mikey's jaw dropped.
"That guy?"
"I knew it! You work for him!" Mikey shook his head uncertainly, his ninja hearing picked up leo's breathing behind a shipping crate.
"No…" mikey said, "pip, that dude tried to kill us too, me and...my brothers." Pip's eyes widened and he lifted the skull mask off his face. He looked down at Raph's bleeding from.
"You're...brothers?"
"Yeah." Mikey said, raising his voice,"my three brothers." he could only hope leo got the clue. Pip narrowed his eyes.
"Three…?" he glanced around the docks, "where's-"
"Looking for me?" leo asked, jumping down from a crate, his katanas were still sheathed, however.
"Leo!" Donnie shouted, "what are you doing here?"
"Got mikey's text." leo said, he knelt next to Raph and eyed the wound in his neck.
"Who are you?" Pip snarled, "i will have my-"
"Dude!" mikey yelled, "Chris is foot clan! That means you work for him!"
"Foot…" pip whispered, staring at his uniform, "i would have seen him! You lie!"
"He's a gross mutant now!" he saw leo binding Raph's throat while he kept pip distracted, he hoped it would be enough, "he's a giant skeleton dog!"
Pip stared at the mutant, the skeleton dog…"rahzar?" he breathed.
"Yeah!" Mikey said, "you know him?"
"He...it was he who awoke me." Pip whispered, "after my father deemed me 'unstable' i was put into a type of stasis that allowed me to age, but not to feel. Or move."
"Pip!" a familiar voice called, Pip turned
"Karai." he said, "do you know these...turtles?"
"Oh Pip." karai gasped, wrapping him in a hug. "I had no idea shredder did that to you, but you must believe me when i say these turtles are not the enemy...they are family." pip thought for a moment, and then grimaced.
"Lies." he hissed, "it's all you've ever told me karai! I know about you, you betrayed father!"
"No! Pip!" karai gasped, but pip ignored her, he shoved his boot into her stomach and threw her to the other one, the one in purple who's leg he had broken.
"I don't need anyone," Pip snarled, "but i will be done with you until i have found revenge for my brother, and then i will get revenge for my father." Pip jumped into the ocean behind him and took his re-breather out, using it to breath he swam with the current away from the turtles.
Leo stared after the boy as karai sobbed into her knees, Raph opened his eyes, and surprised leo by speaking.
"L-leo."
"Raph!" Mikey exclaimed, running over, "Are you ok?"
"B-been better." Raph managed, leo shook his head.
"Don't talk raph. He sliced your throat-"
"Leo!" karai exclaimed, having stopped her grief as she noticed what was wrong with Donatello, "he's hurt!"
"I'm fine, i can barely feel it." donnie said.
"You know that's not a good thing." Karai scolded, "Your leg is broken."
"Oh, that." Donnie sighed, "yeah i can feel that." Leo stared in dismay across the docks to where his other brother lay, how had all this happened in one night?
"Should i call april?" Mikey offered, "she can-"
"No." leo sighed, "she's...at the hospital right now."
"What!" donnie exclaimed, "is she ok? What happened, oh man, i gotta-"
"April's fine." leo sighed, looking down at Raph, "it's casey we should be worried about." the red masked turtle grimaced in pain, his eyes crossed and unfocused.
"So, Pip knew he knew us?"
"I guess." leo sighed, "we have to get you guys home."
"There's some planks over here we can use as a splint for donnie!" Mikey exclaimed, running over to a pile of wood, "let me just find some…" Leo nodded as he watched his brother drift back into unconsciousness, Raph seemed unaware that leo was there now, he closed his eyes and his breathing evened out, he was asleep.
"Mikey, find two straight pieces, the length of my leg from my knee to the ground." Donnie instructed, "once you find them come here, karai, do you know how to make a splint?"
"Yeah." karai replied weakly, "i'm so sorry Pip did this donnie, i should have told you guys about him, but...i thought he was dead."
"It's ok." Donnie said, Leo could barely hear them, he was in shock and he knew it, but he couldn't force himself to calm down. "It's obviously a long story that we'll need to hear, but right now we need to get raph back to the lair, i need to stitch up his wound, speaking of which, leo, find a really big plank we can use as a stretcher." leo didn't reply, "leo?" the leader in blue shook his head to clear it.
"right, a stretcher, on it." he said, Leo forced himself to stand and walk to the pile of wood mikey had just sprinted from with two planks, after searching for a moment leo located one that would have to work, and he walked back to Raph.
"Thanks karai." Donnie grunted in pain, "I'll just need help walking, but two people need to carry raph, at least."
"Me and leo can do that." Mikey said, "hold on leo, I'll help you." Leo nodded and Mikey helped him lift raph onto the makeshift stretcher, the trip back to the lair seemed like a split second to leo, and also a decade of wincing at bumps against the wall, a decade of hearing his brother's breathing hesitate before continuing. And then Donnie was stitching it up from the wheelchair they'd dug out.
"Why?" leo whispered, "why did he...why?"
"He, uh, he thought we worked for the guy who killed his brother." Mikey explained, "and...he said he wanted to tear the hamato clan apart...starting with…" the freckle faced turtle stopped and Leo looked at him.
"Starting with what Mikey?" he asked, "What?"
"Our...leader…" Mikey whimpered, "he thought Raph was...the leader...because he was the oldest he didn't...he didn't know about you until i told him." Leo rubbed his face in his hands and blew a slow breath out, looking at the table where Donnie worked slowly and carefully.
"And you let Raph sacrifice himself." he finished. Mikey nodded uncertainly, "it's not like we wanted him to die." mIkey whimpered, "but Donnie was playing along, so i played along, and then..i could hear you and karai."
"Hear us." leo repeated.
"Yeah, your breathing." Mikey explained, "karai always breaths fast and makes a tiny noise, so i could tell it was her, and you always seem to be half meditating. So, yeah, i heard you." Leo nodded and sighed again.
"He's gonna try to kill us again." leo said, "after he tries to kill Bradford."
Pip watched the hulking figure of Rahzar as he paced. "What is taking that insufferable boy so long!" he complained, "i have a schedule to keep and killing him is the next thing on it! I'm bored."
"you are talking about the ninja who defeated master shredder." Fishface stated, "it will take awhile for him to kill them all, maybe if we're lucky he will kill karai as well." Pip felt a surge of fury, those mutants had been right, this was bradford, and he was going to kill pip as soon as he completed his mission.
"Schedule change!" he said quietly but forcefully, drawing the arrow back to his cheek, Rahzar turned. "Eat lead, Bradford." there was a canine like whimper as the arrow pierced a skull and excited the other side, killing the overgrown dog instantly. "Good dog." he said scathingly, then turned to fishface. "And you. You leave."
"Try me, boy." fishface sneered,whipping out a switchblade, "i can kill you with one eye closed.
"Want to test that theory?" Pip asked, he fired a miniscule dart from a launcher in his palm into the mutants eyes, he staggered back in pain.
"You imbecile!" he growled, "that hurt!"
"Did it?" pip asked innocently, "I had no idea." and with a cloud of black smoke he was gone, leaving a half blind fish alone in the warehouse.
April sat next to casey's hospital bed as the heart monitor beeped with the rhythm of his heart, a buzzing in her pocket drew her hand to her phone. It was leo, she answered.
"How's Casey?" Leo's voice asked, sounding exhausted.
"stable." april said, "he'll be fine, what about the guys?" leo drew in a breath and let it out slowly.
"Well, Donnie has a broken leg-"
"What?"
"And Raph got a pretty bad cut on his throat." leo continued, ignoring her outburst, "the guy who did this is going after rahzar now, because bradford killed his brother a while ago, but the thing is...oh man, i have to go april, sorry we'll fill you in a little later." leo hung up and april stared at her phone, not realizing that brown eyes had opened beside her.
"Hey red." Casey said weakly, April's eyes snapped back to him, he managed a small smile. "What happened?"
"You showed up on my porch with an arrow through you." april said and casey nodded.
"Sounds about right, i was just checking," he ran a hand through his black hair, "you catch the guy who did this yet?"
"No, and he hurt Raph and Donnie." april replied, "did he say anything to you?"
"Say anything?" casey asked, "yeah, we were on the road to being friends until i mentioned you april, it was weird, as soon as he heard your name he shouted that i must be a hamato and that we'd all pay, and then it's just pain…" casey sighed, "he said something else too, about being shredder's son...but i coulda been hallucinating at that point."
"Shredder has a son?" April asked, "that's impossible!" casey shrugged.
"Like i said, "it was probably just me."
bum bum bum! thanks for reading! please review!