"Good job my sons, I can tell you're all very weary so you may take the day off and relax. You deserve it after that tale of yesterday's events you've told me about." Splinter waved his hand away and the four teens visibly relaxed, they had been sitting in a kneeling position before their father figure/teacher two hours after Raph came home, his brothers had came back nearly a half an hour later after coming back home from their searching. Splinter made his way into his bedroom shutting the doors behind him to meditate leaving his sons alone to their own devices for the day.
Raph stood up to leave ready to get back to bed and sleep, he had been dragged out of bed by Mikey after their father wanted to see them all in the dojo. Seeing that he had nothing else to say to his brothers or father he just wanted to sleep the day away. His body has black and blue bruises covering it, scratches littered his body and his muscles ached.
"Hold on Raph." Leo's voice stopped him, Raph growled irritated at being stopped when he was just about to step through the doors. Spinning back around Raph crossed his arms over his chest and looked tiredly to his older brother. Leo followed him and stood hardly two feet away from him. "Where the shell did you go last night? We had to stay up all night just to go looking for you when you went missing!" Leo felt angry at Raph who shrugged his shoulders.
"Got lost, so what? I found my way back you guys didn't have to go looking for me." His answer displeased Leo much more, gathering his wits and thinning patience was becoming harder for the normally cool collected brother. Luckily for Raph, Mikey chose to intrude on their conversation that was beginning to become more of an argument.
"Nah bro, Master Splinter said we had to or he'd double today's training for us." Mikey was blissfully unaware of Raph's sudden change of feelings, Raph's emerald eyes narrowed slightly as they looked between his youngest and oldest brother.
"Oh really?" Raph sarcastically asked, "Well gee I'm sorry, it's nice to know that you guys didn't want that extra training. God forbid you get double training."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Leo asked, taking a step closer while Raph did the same thing, both brothers glared heatedly to each other and Mikey kept quiet in the background. He hated it when his brothers argued like this but he knew from experience that he couldn't do anything himself to stop it without angering them some more. It would be better if he just kept his mouth shut and let them go.
"Guys." Donnie said with a warning tone, he stepped in the middle of Raph and Leo forcing the two to separate from each other while giving each of them stern looks, "Don't start a fight, Raph's home and we get the day off. I'd say that's a win-win right." Leo scoffed loudly. "You really think this is a win-win?"
"Whatever, I don't know why you're being such a big crybaby over this." Raph turned back around leaving his brothers behind with an angry huff.
"You still didn't tell us how you got lost! You know this city like the back of your hand, how can you of all people get lost?" Leo called out as he glared at his brother's back, "Quit ignoring me!" Raph continued to ignore his brother by simply tuning him out. Walking out of the dojo, going through the living room and jumping up to reach the stairs hanging about the couch Raph climbed the stairs which led up into a hallway of the brothers bedrooms where they each resided in.
Raph practically kicked his door open and slammed it shut whilst locking it to keep his snooping brothers out. He exhaled loudly, visibly annoyed but right now he was way too tired to really care about whatever drama his brother wants to start this time. He stomped over to his bed throwing his body body down onto the furniture. He hissed in pain when something sharp jabbed him in the stomach so he sat up picking up the object that hurt him. In his hands was his T-Phone. Muttering under his breath, "Go figure even my phone wants to get me today too." Clicking the power button turned his phone on and Raph gazed at a notification, a message sent from an unknown number.
-Are you just getting home turtle?
The message had read, Raph's curiosity began to grow. Who was this sending this kind of message? The messenger obviously knew who he was which made him suspicious and possibly dangerous. He crossed out April and Casey, he already had their numbers. He could definitely rule out his three brothers...which meant it was an enemy possibly. Karai? Wasn't too unlikely. Bradford? Raph let out a snort, he doubted that Bradford could even hold a phone with his giant hands. Slowly an unknown feeling crept into Raph, could it possibly be...Xever? Biting his lip Raph opened the message tentatively staring at it rereading the words many times over again. Quickly he typed up a response and sent it.
-Depends. Who is this?
In his darkened bedroom the only source of light was from his phone which illuminated his bedroom partially, Raph shifted himself so he was sitting cross-legged on his bed while he waited almost anxiously for a reply from the other person.
-Who do you think turtle? Why don't you take a guess and find out.
The teen blinked, what kind of an answer was that? His heart pounded heavily in his chest as soon as he typed out his one worded message back.
-Xever?
-You guessed it. You know it's quite dark in here isn't it?
"What the hell?" Raph muttered and another message was sent back to him by Xever. How he got his number he didn't know, why he was even messaging he didn't know the answer to that either. His blood began to freeze and Raph became alert of his surrounds in an instant.
-Why don't you turn the lights on so we can talk Raphael?
The sound of something shuffling against the ground moving closer to him made Raph shut his phone off leaving him in darkness. As fast as the teen could he reached out for his twin sais and stood up in a defensive stance. The footsteps stopped a few feet in front of him, the silence was deafening. There was no other movement save for Raph trying to stifle his breathing to not give his position away.
"Show yourself ya coward." Raph threatened. He gripped his sais harder waiting for something to happen.
"As you wish turtle." The other's sly voice said, 'Xever! Why is he here of all places!? And how in the hell did I not see his own phone while he was texting me? I would've seen some other type of light right?' Raph was too distracted with his thoughts when Xever swiped his leg underneath Raph's legs and the teen crashed to the floor, his sais clattering on the floor with the sound echoing across his bedroom. However Raph wasn't going down without a fight, no he was too stubborn to give up so easily.
He picked himself back up again whilst throwing two punches towards Xever's stomach and ribs both of which the older mutant had deflected without a problem. This ticked Raph off a bit, he didn't expect this to happen so he had been unprepared while relaxing in what he thought was his safe haven. Apparently not as Xever kicked and jabbed at Raph who avoided each attack fluidly. However he couldn't rely on his hearing much longer, it was hard trying to hit and avoid when he couldn't see at all.
"This isn't much of a fair fight here." Raph joked lightly, making wise-ass jokes were something he did to keep his cool in situations like this so he wouldn't lose his fighting style. Though he didn't expect to hear the older of the two to give a quiet laugh.
"No I guess not..."
"Time out. What are you doing here? Ya trying to kill me so soon?" Though he had dropped his weapons and he couldn't tell where they landed, Raph was still skilled in basic hand to hand combat so he kept his guard up, just because he respected Xever doesn't mean he trusts him. Stepping to the side Raph moved around where he assumed Xever was at and got closer to his the other end of his bedroom and flicked the light-switch on. Lighting up the room and the two inside of it.
To say that Raph had been surprised at what he sees next is a definite understatement of the year. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but he was sure it wasn't seeing Xever back in his original human self gazing at him in the middle of his room.
. . .
Mikey was lazily laying on the living room couch nibbling on a pizza while watching a spooky movie that just came on the T.v. He watched the television screen with wide baby blue eyes staring intently with suspense. He moved the pizza closer to take a bite when a blood curdling scream came from the movie and he watched as a gruesome scene played. Mikey got frightened when a hand touched his shoulder and the youngest teen jumped out of his skin screaming loudly.
He then flopped off of the couch his pizza discarded and forgotten about while crying out, "Please don't eat me scary monster! I don't taste good I promise!"
"Seriously Mikey?" Leo asks, crossing his arms across his plastron chest. A fond smile made it's way on his face though when Mikey sat up laughing while looking embarrassed. Leo stood awkwardly next to the couch, hesitating to open his mouth to speak what was on his mind.
"You don't sneak up on a turtle who's watching a scary movie like that okay? So whats up?" Mikey asked as he glanced around searching for his lost pizza. The youngest turtle missed the flashing guilt that passed his eldest brothers face before he schooled his expressions to a nonchalant one.
"Nothing much, I just think I've been acting like a jerk to Donnie...and a big jerk to Raph too."
"Yeah you have. I didn't want to say anything or interfere when you guys fight like that because I only make your arguments worse." Mikey said with a serious tone, it was weird to say the least as Mikey was always the fun-loving bubbly baby brother. "You guys are so stubborn and think you're the one wronged. Just swallow your pride and apologize to them, I'm sure they'll forgive you."
"B-but why do I have to be the one apologizing to them? Well Donnie I understand he was just trying to help I guess...But Raph?" Leo gave Mikey an 'are you kidding me right now?' look that Mikey waved off literally with pizza in hand.
"Stubborn~." Mikey said, implying heavily on the word in a sing-song fashion. "To be fair, you're the one who started this fight earlier, so you should be the one to apologize. If you didn't want to hear the truth, you wouldn't be standing in front of me." Mikey finished saying and took a bite of his cheesy pizza and turned his focus back onto the scary movie when he heard Leo's quiet, "Thanks Mikey..."
. . .
Donnie tried to forget about today in general. Key word, tried. But it was hard for the more intellectual of the brothers to simply try and forget. Having a near photographic memory made it hard for him so he did what he could to try. He threw himself into his books and labs, studying and researching more on Kraang mutagen to unlock any secrets he could find inside of the substance.
Concentrating, Donnie slowly held a tiny glass vial of mutagen with metal tongs while wearing protective gloves and glasses while trying to pour the mutagen into a beaker. All was going well when he heard muffled yelling, almost screaming that startled the mutant teen into almost spilling the mutagen over himself when with quick reflexes he gave a loud sigh of relief as not a drop of mutagen spilled anywhere. He quickly poured the mutagen back into it's container and screwed the lid on tight before sprinting out of his lab to see what was causing all the chaos this time. Little did Mikey and Leo know, Donnie had heard their rather serious conversation due to Mikey's scare earlier.
. . .
"So...'kay you lost me there after your very long and crazy explanation. You're back to being a human on Shredder's orders...what does this have to do with my family then this time? How the hell did you find me or get my number ya creep?" Raph queried asking question after question to Xever's amusement , the teen didn't let up on his defensive stance, poised and ready should Xever decide to make another attack on him. Xever stuck his hands in his black jean pockets and laughed lightly at Raph.
"Being back to my human self is so relieving...Though I'm not here for your family turtle. I'm here for you, to make a proposition of sorts, so to speak under orders of Shredder." The younger male eyed Xever carefully, almost curious as well. "What would you think if I told you that there is a way for you to become human as well?"
"..." Raph was momentarily stunned, dropping his arms to his sides while tilting his head before busting out in laughter. "I think you're joking, I don't know about what crazy schemes Shredder's been up to. But boy does this sure take the cake." Raph laughed while shaking his head, the motion moved his red mask over his eyes. When Raph soon realized that Xever wasn't laughing and instead very serious he gave the human an incredulous look.
"This is no joke Raphael, believe me or not I don't really care. I'm here because Shredder admires your fighting style. He finds it a shame that you hold yourself back, you have a lot of potential going to waste." Raph had a sharp sudden intake of air filling his lungs when memories of being berated and shut down by Splinter began to appear. Splinter always, always told Raph that his fighting was lacking. He wasn't enough in the eyes of Splinter yet Leonardo was...Shaking the thoughts away Raph grew angry at himself for even thinking of his family like that, of even thinking of betraying his family and listening to Xever.
"Yeah whatever you say. You still didn't answer my other questions though..." Raph scowled half-heartedly when Xever only gave him a sly grin.
"That's for me to know, and you to not unless you agree upon the offer." Raph snorted at this.
"What offer? You did a bad job of giving me an offer. Suppose I do agree, what would it even be for?"
"I'll put it like this, y-" Xever was then cut off from speaking when knocking was heard from the other side of the bedroom door. Raph froze in his spot, unsure of what to say or do in this situation.
"Hey Raph?" Donnie's muffled voice asked, then Mikey's voice could be heard as he started saying, "We're having a scary movie marathon with Casey and April, you should join us if you're up to it." Raph could practically see the pleading look on Mikey's face just by his voice.
"I-...I'm still tired guys...M-maybe I'll watch some movies with you later?" Raph said loudly for his brothers to hear. A puzzled expression made it's way on his face as he spoke very quietly for only Xever to hear, "I have no clue why I'm covering for you. Just stay quiet until they leave. Then give me a proper offer. Think ya could handle that?"
"Of course I can." Xever retorted playfully. Raph could hear the dejection in Mikey's voice as his youngest brother sighed.
"It's cool bro, we'll save the scarier ones for you later then."
"Yeah...later." Raph nodded more to himself. As if to remind him that he would still be here later.
Those who like this odd story please leave a review of your feedback on this story. Is it interesting? Boring? Lacking? Are they in character? I kind of over-exceeded in this chapter but I'm kind of really liking the fun I have writing this story. Hope those who read enjoyed the story. Might be a while till I update again though since there isn't many people liking the story.