SO I just had to finish this chapter! Sorry if it feels a little bit rushed. But honestly, I think this is the best I could have done with it, there's just so much that happens. Including Mikey finding out what is in Raph's room.
Ch. 7-Rule No. 1
Michelangelo crept softly down the hall to Raphael's room. He stood outside the door for almost two minutes. For two minutes he pondered whether or not he should really do this, and whether or not he truly wanted to know what secrets lay behind that foreboding door. Slowly the orange-masked turtle reached for the doorknob, looking both ways down the hall.
See, one thing Michelangelo did know, it was rule number one. Whenever you do something someone tells you not to…Rule Number One: Don't get caught.
With no further ado, the youngest of the four turtles entered his older brother's room. It was dark, pitch black in fact, as most of their rooms were without the lights on. Mikey reached over and flipped the switch. Whoa. Raph had redecorated. The bed (an old, broken-down mattress) had been moved from the back wall to the side wall. As he turned his attention towards the back of the room, the youngest saw why. Dude. It was like something out of those detective films. Yarn, strings, pictures, scraps of paper, notes written in a messy scrall. Push-pins in a map in the center. All connected to each other by color-coded pieces of string and yarn. Mikey's bright blue eyes tried to decipher the code.
There were many different colors, but the most substantial were Red, Black and White. There was more black than anything else, but there were points where the red met the black. There was also something else that struck Michelangelo as strange. Each push-pin had a date tag attached to it. Since about two weeks ago, the red and white strings had begun to travel side by side, and though each occasionally deviated, most of the time those two went together. It was odd. Mikey assumed that the red was his red-masked brother. The black was presumably the Foot and the white…the white threw him off. What the hell did the white mean?
Bright blue eyes narrowed. Something strange is going on here. Michelangelo traced the white yarn away from last point on the map and backwards. Every so slowly, Michelangelo worked backwards, noting every instance when the two strings parted. Funny, when they did separate they usually went in opposite directions. Moving even further backwards, to a point about two weeks ago, Mikey found the origin point of the white string. It was a narrow old alley in a bad part of town. Coincidentally, or perhaps it was not a coincidence, the white push-pin that the white string was tied around, had the red string looped around it as well. Something about this whole thing made Michelangelo uneasy. The idea that his brother had been working with someone he'd met on the street…the youngest really didn't know what to think.
The orange-masked turtle glanced at the clock. Ohmygosh! It was almost time for dinner! If he got caught, or if one of his brothers started looking for him…he could end up in trouble. The youngest decided not to tell anyone about this. Not until he'd given Raphael a chance to explain himself. Mikey left as silently as he had come, closing the door tightly behind him.
It was getting late and still no sign of Shredder. Luckily for Raphael and Casey, they were able to easily locate Karai and her men and had been following her for about an hour. So far they hadn't been spotted. If they were patient the little ants would lead them back to the nest. And straight to their leader. Raph looked back over his shoulder to the human who stood slightly behind him. "How're you holding up?"
"Well if they make me run much longer, I'll be too fucking tired to fight." The human raised an eyebrow inquiringly, "Aren't you tired?"
"Mutant." Raph stated.
Jones apparently wanted more explanation than that because he grumbled something about 'mutants' and their strange abilities.
Raph chuckled quietly at his human friends' expression when he realized that it had gotten quiet. Way too quiet. His green eyes narrowed and he drew his sais. He could feel a change in the air waves. The giant turtle looked down into the alley. Nothing. No movement, no cars, and most importantly no Foot clan. Damn! They'd lost their only lead.
Raph's fists clenched. Then why do I still feel uneasy? The turtle asked himself. Suddenly the feeling became more centered. Green eyes flashed and Raphael whirled around dangerously. "He's here." The six-foot turtle growled lowly.
Casey Jones shot up from his crouched position at the edge of the roof, bearing his hockey mask threateningly. "What? How can you tell?"
"I'm a ninja." He stated, then after a considerable pause he added softly, "I can feel him."
Jones rolled his eyes, "Sure."
Raph's eyes narrowed. "Sh." Everything went silent. It was an uncomfortably chilling silence. Even the human vigilante shuddered as he slowly began to have faith in Raphael's senses.
"Raphael." A deep ominous voice growled.
The turtle turned back towards his companion. "It's him. Whatever you do, don't lose your head." Raph turned away from Casey and glanced around, warily.
The next thing he knew, the six-foot giant turtle felt someone jumping at him from behind, where Casey Jones had been standing. He whipped about and caught the blow before it landed, finding himself face to face with a dark armored figure.
Shredder's suit was different, a little less robotic, and a little more samurai-esque. He had claws that extended dangerously from his gauntlets about seven or eight inches. For some strange reason, despite the lack of tech and difference in size, Raphael found this form ultimately more imposing than the other one. For whatever reason, Shredder's almost can-opener look just felt more threatening, like he could slice open turtle shells with ease. Which of course made Raph feel very ill at ease. He didn't fancy the idea of being made into turtle soup.
"Were you looking for me?"
"No shit." The hothead growled.
"I could still make good use of you." Shredder growled throwing himself at the turtle. Their weapons clashed with a mighty clang. Raphael growled as one body punch after another pounded away at his plastron. "Tell me, where are the other turtles? And the rat?" Raphael growled in response. Shredder slammed him up against a wall. "Where are they?!"
"I will never tell you."
"Are you certain of that?" Shredder drawled menacingly, pressing his blades to Raph's throat. Raphael's deep throaty growl was equally menacing.
A yell re-alerted the turtle to Casey's presence. The human struck at Shredder from behind, jumping at him and swinging as hard as he could with his hockey stick. CRACK! The stick broke in two and Casey was left only with the handle. Shredder glared through his mask at the pitiful human vigilante.
Panic briefly surfaced in Raphael's mind as Shredder released him and went straight for Jones. Casey put up as good a fight as he was able, but Shredder was a ninja. Not only that, but Saki was a ninja with many years of experience. The human was barely able to stay on his feet after taking a couple of really strong blows.
The human didn't stand a chance. Raphael leaped up and came to his friend's aid many times, taking the bulk of Shredder's fearsome blows. Finally, the turtle took one hit too many and when he tried to get up, he found that the world had begun to spin, so he lay back down and waited for his vision to clear. Green eyes briefly registered a sharp, pointy figure rapidly approaching the human. Casey was on guard, but that wasn't going to be enough. Raphael recognized that kata. His sensei used it all the time, and it always ended the sparring match in the old rat's favor. There was only one thing the turtle could think to do. He tossed all regard for his injuries to the wind and threw himself forward, throwing the human to the side. The turtle used himself as a living shield, once again taking a blow for his human friend. Sadly, Raphael also got himself pinned in the process.
Unfortunately, Casey hit his head as he impacted with the ground and briefly lost consciousness. As a result, the human wasn't going to be of much help to the turtle.
The turtle was too disoriented to escape from beneath Shredder's powerful pin. Raph attempted to stab Shredder with his sai, but Saki grabbed the turtle's oversized wrist and managed to worm the weapon out of Raph's grip. There was a flurry of movement and suddenly everything stopped.
The fog in Casey's head cleared just enough for him to realize what was going on, but his body would not respond to the commands of his mind. He still needed a moment to fully regain his senses.
The sai pressed down on the upper left plate of the turtle's plastron. Shredder's fiery gaze glared down into Raphael's. Oroku Saki began to press the sai against his plastron, near the shoulder and Raph grit his teeth as the pressure neared the threshold. There was a soft crack, foreshadowing what Shredder was really capable of.
"Last chance. Tell me where they are." The leader of the Foot Clan commanded.
Raph clenched his teeth and snarled, "Never."
"So be it." Shredder plunged the sai downward, cleaving a lightning-shaped scar in the upper left side of the turtle's plastron. But that wasn't enough to satisfy Oroku Saki. He pressed the blade even deeper until it was buried practically to the hilt.
Raphael bit his tongue so hard he drew blood. He groaned and he writhed, which probably only served to make the wound even worse, but the red-masked turtle would not give Shredder the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Never.
The turtle was so overwhelmed by the pain that he didn't even feel Shredder's blade carving into the skin on his shoulder.
Casey's vision cleared just in time to see Shredder ramming a sai into his mutant friend and something inside of him snapped. But he knew the only way he would be able to help Raphael was by lying low, so he dropped back into the shadows.
Shredder stood and glanced around before he bent over and yanked the sai from Raphael's shoulder. Foot minions joined them on the rooftop and addressed Shredder, "What do you want us to do with him, Master Shredder?"
"Leave him. His wound will bleed out soon enough. He's as good as dead."
"But couldn't we use him to find the other turtles?"
"It is no use. This one will not talk. Just let him die."
"As you command, Master Shredder."
"What about the human?"
Raphael tried to better focus on what was being said. They were talking about Casey.
"He escaped, sir. We tried to stop him, but he evaded us. Do you wish us to go after him?"
Shredder growled. "No. The human is insignificant. Just get me the rest of the parts."
"Yes, as you command, sir."
By the time Raphael regained consciousness the Foot were gone and Casey Jones was the only human in sight.
"Raph…eh Raph…" Casey said.
Raphael stared up at the human as best as he was able. His vision kept fluctuating between foggy and blurry. "What took you so long, Jones?"
Casey frowned, "I had to make sure they were really gone. How're you doin?"
"I think I've lost a lot of blood, my vision is distorted, my ears are ringing and my body feels like it was beaten to a pulp." Just as he finished with his complaints, his vision blurred and pain from his wound ripped through his entire body. The turtle, without realizing it, reached out, one of his hands grabbing Casey's shirt tightly. Raph grit his teeth. "Shit." He muttered weakly.
Casey Jones put a hand on Raph's uninjured shoulder. He was concerned, very concerned. The rough teenage turtle had somehow become a very important friend to the human, and though he hated to show it, he was really worried. When Jones spoke, his voice was soft and gentle, "Ey, you make sure you survive this, okay?"
Raphael gave Casey a rather confused stare, then he smirked, "What's in it for me?" he asked, jokingly.
Casey smiled easily back at his friend. "I'll give you one of my autographed baseballs."
There was a long moment of silence before Raph whispered, "You mean that?"
"Would I lie to you?"
"If you thought it would give me extra incentive to live? Probably."
Jones rolled his eyes. "You're impossible."
"I know." Raphael stated, as he began to weakly push himself up, avoiding the use of his right shoulder.
"Whoa, where the hell are you going? You're in no condition to—"
"We have to move, otherwise Shredder or his men could come back and find we're still alive." Raph stated. Once he was on his feet, he took a few staggering steps on his own before Casey stepped in and helped him.
The hockey player didn't mind getting a little blood on himself and his equipment. Raphael had saved his life.
They were in the sewers about a mile from the lair. With Casey's help Raph had managed to get this far, but the turtle knew he would have to send Casey home. His brothers, and father, were going to have a difficult enough time coming to terms with what had happened, let alone why there was another human who knew about them, so Raph decided to continue keeping Casey a secret for now.
"Ey Case, stop here."
"What's up?" The human asked as he allowed Raphael to take a seat against the wall of the tunnel.
"Man, you can barely walk by yourself, how the hell are you supposed to get back to wherever it is we're headed?"
Raphael didn't bother answering the question directly. Instead he muttered, "Get my phone out of my belt, will ya?"
Jones did so and then Raph commanded, "Call Leo. He's number one speed dial."
"Who the hell is Leo?" Casey asked as he did what the turtle asked.
"My brother." Raph stated as though it were the most normal thing in the world.
Casey stared in shock for a few moments. The dial tone rang in the background. Haltingly, the human asked, "You sure you'll be okay?"
Raph smirked. "I'll be fine. You go on home, and take care of those injuries!"
Casey Jones reluctantly left his friend sitting in the sewers, hoping with all his heart that Raph's words were the truth.
Review Please! Thanks everybody for reading!:)
