How did Casey end up with Raphael, Slash and Fishface in the Andes?


7 Years Ago

South America

Fishface swam to shore with a fish in his jaws. His grip was loose. He didn't want to sink his teeth in and release his venom into it but his weak hold nearly made him drop it every few seconds for the entire swim. He didn't mind much. It was worth it.

Fishface crawled onto the land until his head was out of the water and stones dug into his belly but his gills remained underwater. He set the fish down and put a hand on it to keep the current from dragging it away. "Raphael, Slash, breakfast!"

Furthur in the cove, the excited shouts of a child followed by the slow rumbles of his guardian. Fishface smiled and tried to listen in on what they were saying. Raph had been with them for three years now and he was starting to grow up a bit. His voice had changed and he was less of a handful. Still a handful but at this point it didn't take both Slash and Fishface to keep him out of trouble.

Within a few seconds, Slash's head popped out of the cave high above ground level on the mountain. Raph sat on one of his shoulders. He hung on to one of the spikes sticking out of Slash's shell as the larger turtle began to slide down the mountain.

For what felt like the millionth time, Fishface gave thanks that he and Slash had found this place all those years ago. They'd already been living here by the time that Raph had come along but they were lucky nonetheless. Raising the young turtle would've been much more of a challenge without a home.

About half a mile across from the water, the Andes mountains began. The mountain closest to the water was small compared to the ones in the range behind it but it was still pretty tall. The water lead into a gravel beach. There was sand further along but not in their preferred area. The beach lead into rockier terrain as the land elevated and that eventually lead into the mountain where the cave that they slept in sat.

At this point, Slash and Raph had made it past the rocks and were on the gravel. Slash let the smaller turtle down and he ran across the beach to greet Fishface.

"Good morning Fishface!" Raph called with Slash close behind. "Catch anything good?"

"No idea." Fishface responded. Raph and Slash made it to the water and they sat down in front of Fishface. "It looks good though."

Slash pulled out a sharp rock and began carving up the fish into smaller pieces that they could eat. He lay out some leaves and put the chunks of fish on them before handing them around. Everyone held their food so it didn't float away or sink in the shallow water.

"Be careful of bones." Slash cautioned. Raph nodded while Fishface merely blinked in acknowledgement. The three began eating their meal of fish and plants.

"So, what are you two doing today?" Fishface asked. He shifted so his tail-like body lay more comfortably behind him. He never got used to his mutated form. It felt to unnatural. It was like he was a fish head on an eel's body with arms. It was all kinds of weird.

"We were going to go look for some trees." Raph told him through a mouthful of fish.

Slash nodded. "Yeah, I haven't gone South much, I'm hoping there some sort of forest or something. All the trees around here are no good for anything."

Fishface nodded and coughed as a bone got stuck in this throat. He took in a mouthful of water, swished it around, then spat it out behind him.

"Fishface!" Raph whined. He squirmed a bit. "That's gross!"

"Grosser things happen in the ocean." Slash told him but didn't go into detail. "What're you doing today, Xever?"

"Hunting." Fishface said.

"Again?"

"More like scouting." Fishface said. "I went father than I usually do the other day and I want to see if that area's any good for hunting grounds."

"Good luck with that." Slash told him.

"Good luck to you two too." Fishface nodded. "See you tonight?"

"Of course."


Fishface swiftly swam with his arms pressed to his sides and his tail flicking through the water. He passed by some smaller fish, none of them had the same speed and precision as he did.

He tried to find an underwater current to speed up his journey but the ocean was pretty calm today. Any other day he'd be happy but right now that was more of an inconvenience than anything though he didn't really mind that much. He had all day and it was only morning now. Besides, he enjoyed a good swim as much as anyone.

Fishface's mind began to wander as he jetted through the water. He briefly began to think about his old life as a human when a shape in the distance caught his attention and snapped him out of it.

"Sharks?" Fishface murmured to himself. He took a look around and his suspicions were confirmed. To his right, he could see the outline of a another shark. Fishface blinked in confusions. He didn't think he swam far enough to be in shark territory.

Fishface looked at the ocean floor and tried to spot something that would give him some sign of where he was. He spotted a familiar rock formation that confirmed that he was where he'd initially thought he was. There shouldn't be sharks here.

Fishface stopped swimming and reared back into his preferred upright position and tried to think of what to do. This spot was close to one of his regular hunting grounds. He always loved some competition but he had two other mouths to feed. This wouldn't do. This wouldn't do at all. These sharks had to get out.

But sharks were pretty much just big fish, right? The only difference other than their size was all their teeth and a few other minor traits like their fin structure and sense of smell. And shark meat was edible so…

Fishface swam to the bottom of the ocean and flattened himself against it so he could swim along the floor. Rocks occasionally brushed against his underside but he was still high enough to where it didn't matter.

Fishface swam towards the second shark he'd spotted. As he neared, he saw that it was circling some sort of fish that must've gotten separated from its school. Good. It was distracted. This was the first time he was doing something like this, he could use all the luck he could get.

Fishface considered splashing his tail against the ground to stir up some sand but he figured that would only grab the shark's attention. Instead, Fishface picked up a sharp stone from the floor and swam towards the shark as silently as possible.

The shark finally figured out how to maneuver to catch the lone fish it was hunting. It broke its circle, backed up then lunged, trapping the fish in its jaws. At this moment, Fishface struck.

Fishface nailed the shark with the stone. Blood flooded into the clear ocean water. The shark went limp and began falling but recovered and swam to loop around and attack.

Fishface suddenly felt something encompass him and before he knew it, he was being pulled out of the water.

"Merda!" Fishface swore as he flew through the air. He landed heavily on land. He felt his lungs begin to burn as he missed a breath. As he struggled, he realized he'd been trapped in a net.

"What the…?" a deep voice said as Fishface flailed. The mutant looked over to see a human man staring at him. He looked as surprised to see him and Fishface was to see him. They blinked at each other as if they believed the sight before them would vanish.

"Let me go!" Fishface hissed. The man stumbled back in shock and fell back on his butt. Fishface realized they were on a boat of some sorts. Probably a fishing boat or maybe a sharking boat judging by the fact that this guy was probably trying to catch that shark. Fishface had been caught by accident.

"You can talk?" the man said after a moment. Fishface didn't have enough air to respond. He just kept thrashing madly on the deck trying to get free of this accursed net or at least flop into the water where he could breathe.

Black spots filled Fishface's vision and his chest felt tight. His gills felt dry and weak. They gasped for air alongside his mouth.

After a minute he stopped trashing and clawed at the deck with his webbed fingers and tried to get off the boat and into the water.

"Help me…" he croaked with dehydrated words. The man just stared at him. Fishface stared back until his body went limp and his eyes rolled back as he blacked out.

The man finally worked up through his shock and got to his feet. Off the deck he grabbed a stick with a hooked end. He reached out tentatively and poked Fishface's side with the smooth side of the hook. He didn't move.

The man twisted the hook around so that the hook was facing upwards. He maneuvered it so it looped around the net and he pulled it off and tossed both the net and the hooked stick to the side.

The man walked over and cautiously poked Fishface with his shoe. Again Fishface didn't move. The man smiled and picked him up in both arms. He made a face of disgust as the damp fishy scales pressed against his chest but this was a big catch to be proud of.

The man carried the limp Fishface across the deck and over to a container. Grunting, he struggled to open the lid and hold Fishface at the same time.

Suddenly Fishface made a loud gurgling noise and his eyes snapped open. The man shouted in surprise. Fishface twisted his head around and sunk his teeth into the man's muscly shoulder.

The man screamed in pain and dropped the fish mutant. Fishface fell and hit the deck where he flopped like a fish on land. The man clutched his shoulder and glared at the dying fish.

With an angry scream, the man kicked Fishface. He went sailing over the side of the ship and fell into the water with a splash that soaked the deck.

Fishface's eyes snapped open at the impact of the water. Fishface began taking in huge gasps and clutched his side where he'd been kicked. Fishface sunk and hit the ocean floor but he didn't care. He just rejoiced in the ability to breathe.

After about ten minutes, a shark swam over and began circling him. Fishface decided he should get moving. Afterall, he still had hunting to do today.


"... and then I bit him and fell back into the water." Fishface concluded his tale. In his hand was a chunk of fish meat wrapped in a flat leaf. He shoved the whole handful into his mouth and wriggled his fins as it slid down his throat.

"Wow!" Raphael exclaimed. "Way to go Fishface!"

"Admirable." Slashed nodded.

"Thank you."

"One question though." Slash said. Fishface nodded for him to ask away. "How did you manage to bite that human without poisoning him?"

Fishface stiffened and his eyes widened. He buried his face into his hands. "Merda, I didn't think of that."

Slash leaned over and put his hand on his friend comfortingly. The three of them were sitting in the same formation along the shoreline as they had that morning during breakfast and for every meal.

"That guy was going to kill you and sell you to some chef or butcher who'd flay you up and serve you to some rich American or tourist." Slash pointed out. "It was a heat of the moment kind of decision. You didn't have a choice, you did what you had to do."

"You always have a choice." Raph's voice held more maturity then the young turtle actually had but Fishface didn't notice this. He ducked his head in shame.

Raph seemed to notice his error and quickly tried to comfort him and say that everything was alright but his words did little to soften the guilt and pain.

Fishface suddenly wasn't hungry anymore. He pushed his food towards his companions and backed up into the ocean slowly, his earlier excitement gone. "I'm going to take a swim, don't wait up for me."

Fishface didn't wait for a response, he just dove into the the water. It was night but the moon provided little light beneath the surface so Fishface just swam steadily in the dark though he still stuck close to the surface.

He hadn't realized where he was going until he smelled blood in the water. It was faint, far off but it alarmed him nonetheless. Fishface pressed his arms to his side so his form became more sleek and jetted through the water.

Fishface came upon what appeared to be a shark feeding frenzy. His concern faded and was replaced with mild disgust. Sharks were creatures of disgusting habits. He was about to turn away when one of the sharks turned on another causing it to swim back, giving Fishface a view of their feast.

Fishface only caught a glimpse but that was enough for him to identify what the sharks were eating. It was that human he'd bitten early. He must've leaned against the ledge of the deck or bent over it to hurl then the venom got to him and he fell overboard into the shark territory.

The sharks mostly clustered around the main mass which consisted of a torso and severed limbs. The surrounding water was stained with a cloud of red. Chunks of meat were floating around. The sharks snatched those up real fast.

Fishface was sickened slightly at the sight but he'd lived in the wild more than long enough accept that this was just the way thing were. Circle of life and all that.

As Fishface swam away, an idea crept into his mind and he switched direction.


Within an hour, Fishface found the fishing boat. It had drifted a bit from where Fishface had found it the first time but not by much.

Fishface reached out of the water and peer onto the deck. Right off the bat, he spotted the torn net and the hooked stick. There was also a big container, the one he almost got put in, which he was sure had some fish or maybe even sharks in it.

Beyond that was a door that lead to the ship's cramped living quarters. Fishface reached out farther to try and get a look but the second his gills went past the surface, Fishface dropped back down. He was not ready for a repeat of earlier.

Fishface swam a few laps around the boat as he tried to think about what to do. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up. A boat wasn't much use to him but Slash could probably scrap it and do something with the raw material. The fishing tools might be of some use to him too. And whatever luxuries that were in the ship's room could probably make that cave that Slash and Raph slept in a bit more comfortable.

Fishface decided he was going to do it. During all his lapping he noticed the boat's anchor. Well, not really an anchor. It was one of those big bucket things that filled up with water to slow a ship down. Fishface didn't remember what it was called.

The bucket rested close to the ocean floor, it was attached to the ship with a long chain. Fishface tried to gnaw at the chain but only hurt his mouth on the metal in doing so. He eyed the anchor and knew he had to get it out of the water and empty it somehow if he was going to pull this boat anywhere.

After struggling with it for a while, Fishface managed to get his hands around the bucket and push it up to the surface. This had taken several attempts, he'd never realized how heavy water was.

Fishface lifted the anchor over his head to empty the water. Water gushed down on him, the force almost made him drop the bucket and sink back down but he stayed swimming strong.

There was a hanger for a real anchor attached to the side of the boat. Fishface fastened the bucket anchor to it and looped the rope around a few times to shorten the length. Within a few minutes, Fishface had basically made a handle for his new "toy".

With an excited gleam in his eye, Fishface took the rope in hand and began swimming back towards the cove.


It was late at night when Fishface made it back to the cove. Or early morning. Fishface personally prefer the term late at night, Slash liked to say early in the morning. Back in the day the two had argued about it occasionally when they stayed up deep into the dark hours.

Fishface recalled those memories with fondness as he made it back towards their home with the boat dragging behind him. In the beach, he could see a giant turtle gazing out at the ocean with a smaller one standing beside him trying not to doze off.

Somehow, Fishface managed to approach them without them noticing.

"Thought I told you two not to wait up." Fishface called. His voice grabbed the attention of the two mutant turtles.

"What is that?" Raph asked staring at the boat, his earlier tiredness forgotten and replaced with excitment.

"It's that fishing boat I told you about a dinner." Fishface told him as he got as close to the land as he could. He unwrapped the rope from the hanger and freed the anchor. The bucket gathered water and hit the ground pretty quickly in the now shallow water.

"You kill a man and now you steal his stuff?" Slash questioned dryly. Fishface averted his gaze and Slash suddenly looked guilty. "Sorry, too soon."

"What kind of stuff's on it?" Raph asked with childlike excitement.

Fishface shrugged. "I don't know. Fishing stuff probably but there's a living space on it, I'm sure you two could find something in there."

Raph looked ready to jump on the ship but Slash stopped him.

"In the morning." Slash told him.

"It is morning." Raph pointed out.

"Late morning." Slash corrected himself. "We've been up forever and Xever just dragged this thing halfway across the Pacific, I'm sure he's tired too. We shouldn't look through the boat's cargo without him."

Raph nodded with understanding. "Alright. Goodnight Fishface. See ya tomorrow."

"G'night." Slash yawned.

"Later." Fishface waved as sleepiness overcame him. He didn't bother trying to find a sleep spot, he just waded until he was fully submerged in the shallow water and curled up into a dreamless sleep.


Fishface woke to a heavy slash in the water but he was too tired to open his eyes and check it out until he heard the shouts of his friends a few minutes later.

Fishface surfaced so just his eyes and dorsal fin peered out of the water. He did not expect to see what he saw.

On the beach Slash stood protectively in front of Raphael using one hand to keep him back while Raph curiously peered out from behind him at the last thing Fishface thought he'd ever see in the cove.

A human boy. He stared up at Slash in wonder but he held a stick in his hands, ready to defend himself. Spotting the hook on the end, Fishface recognized it as the same tool that man had used to get the net off of him.

Fishface took a glance at the boat and it took only seconds for realization to hit him over the head.

"Slash! Wait, stop!" Fishface shouted across the cove. "Don't hurt him!"

Slash turned to look at him. "I wasn't planning on it…" he said in a slightly confused tone.

Raph stared at the human. "What is it?"

"What am I?" the boy questioned. He jabbed his finger out at the turtles then waved it back and forth between Fishface who was watching from the water and where the two mutant turtles were standing. "What the heck are you?"

Fishface suddenly realized that Raph had probably never seen a human other than the ones that had attacked his him three years ago. And he'd said they were all in costumes. The young turtle had never really seen a human before.

No one really knew what to say right now. There was a long pause of awkward silence.

"What's your name?" Fishface asked, breaking the silence.

"Casey Jones." the boy said. The boy turned his head to look at Fishface as he said that. Fishface saw familiarity in his face, he had the same face as the man Fishface had accidentally killed the day before. "Where am I? Did you guys find my boat and take to some 'land of misfit toys' type place where there are a bunch of talking animals instead of all those creepy toys like in the movie?"

"What? No!" Slash said.

"And don't insult that stupid movie! It brings joy to children everywhere." Fishface added sharply.

"We're mutants, by the way." Raph told him. "Not talking animals."

Slash bent over and whispered something to Raph that was probably along the lines of "that's what a mutant is". Raph glared at him and hissed something back.

"I am Xever." Fishface introduced.

"But we call him Fishface." Raph piped up before anyone could say anything else.

Casey laughed. "Good one, turtle."

"I'm Raph." Raph said.

"And my name's Slash." the larger turtle said. "So how'd you get here, Casey?"

Casey's grin and laughs faded and he scowled. "My folks made me come to some family vacation thing. We were staying at some fancy resort place and my dad wanted to take me out fishing on the boat. Not really my thing but I wasn't about to chicken out."

Raph and Slash nodded along with the story. Clearly they hadn't put two and two together. Fishface was tempted to swim away before they did but he knew better. He'd have to face the consequences of his wrongdoings eventually.

"So we were out fishing, right?" Casey continued. "I wasn't feeling too great, Dad told me to lie down. I guess I fell asleep. When I got up, I smelled this terrible smell and I went out onto the deck and there my dad was, dead on the ground. His shirt had this weird hole in it and he had these bite marks on him. I heard about crazy snakes in South America, I guess one of them got him."

Raph and Slash looked at Fishface. They knew he was that "crazy snake" that killed Casey's dad. They looked back to the human boy as he kept talking.

"So anyway, his body was smelling pretty bad so I had to push it off the boat and all these sharks swarmed us." Casey continued. "I tried to figure out how to get back but I didn't really know where I was or how to get back. I kinda fell asleep and I woke up here and ran into you guys."

"... I'm sorry." Raph said. "I lost my father too. And my brothers."

Fishface felt a thousand times worse. This Casey wasn't that much older than Raph, probably ten years old. He was twice the age Raph had been when he was taken from his family but that didn't make it any better. No child that young should go through that.

Fishface decided he had to come clean. He knew he had to take care of this kid, he was his responsibility and he couldn't do it with all that weight on his chest. And if the truth came out later…

"Merda, I can't believe I'm doing this." Fishface said quietly to himself then looked up. "Jones… Casey. I'm sorry. I was my venom that killed your father, not a snake."

Casey stared at him. "...what?"

Casey looked pissed. Fishface came clean and he'd come clean fast. Probably not the smartest thing. "I was out and I saw this shark… I thought I'd try my hand at catching it then I got caught in this net and dragged onto your boat. I couldn't breathe, I asked that guy- your father I presume- to throw me back but he just stared at me and I blacked out. When I came to, he was trying to shove me in this crate with a bunch of dead fish. I bit him. I didn't mean to poison him, I just… I was freaking out, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't even realize what I did for a few hours. I know that's not an excuse, I'm sorry."

Casey silently stared at him with an angry expression. Fishface sighed and looked away. Suddenly Casey's expression dropped into a calmer one. "Don't worry about it, man."

"What?" Fishface looked up.

"I mean, it was totally your fault but it also wasn't. You were defending yourself. I'm pretty sure killing someone in self defense is legal." Casey told him. "He's like that Steve Erwin guy I saw on TV. He died poking a stingray or something. Of course I'll miss him but it sounds like it was his own fault he died."

Fishface relaxed and shot him a grateful look even though he was concerned for how accepting Casey was but he wasn't about to argue with forgiveness after he felt so bad.

"You didn't answer my question earlier." Casey said changing the subject to the surprise of the mutants. "Where the heck am I?"

"You're still in South America." Slash told him. He was a lot calmer, not as threatening. Raph walked out from behind him but he still didn't get too close to the human. "Ecuador or Peru, I think. I can't really tell. Somewhere on the West Coast around the Andes."

"This cove is our home." Raph said. "Slash and Fishface found it before they found me."

Casey nodded. "Sweet place."

"You're welcome to stay for a while." Fishface offered. "I don't think you alone on a boat in shark infested waters is a very good idea."

"Thanks." Casey said. Fishface was getting mixed signals from him. He couldn't tell if he was excited or if he really didn't want to be here and wanted to leave. Those two feelings were very different, Fishface was impressed the kid could have so many expressions on at once but then again, he probably hadn't seen a human in ten years. His reading skills were rusty and he wasn't that much of a feely person to start with.

"I could keep an eye out for search boats if you'd like." Fishface didn't think he'd be able to find this tourist resort Casey had mentioned.

"Would you?" Casey's eyes brightened a bit. "I'm sure my mom and sister are worried. I'd hate to think that they think me and Dad are goners…"

Fishface got that guilty feeling again. He was sure it would be a long time until it went away. Maybe it would even be around forever.

"Come on, Casey." Slash said and put a hand on Casey's shoulder to guide him. The boy flinched at the first touch of a mutant but calmed after a moment. "Let me show you where Raphael and I live. See you later Fishface?"

Fishface nodded. "Of course, go show the boy the cove."

"You're going to love it here." Raph said.

"You think?"

Raph nodded. "Yeah, it's great! And it'd be nice to have another kid around."

"I'm not a kid. I'm ten!" Casey said but didn't actually sound bothered.

"Whatever, Fishface says drinking age is eighteen in Peru and Ecuador." Raph told him. "He says that's when you officially can't be called a kid anymore, except by old people."

Slash sighed and turned to look back at Fishface. Fishface grinned and waved him off. Maybe having Casey around would be good for them.


Author's Note: I legit started writing this before the previous chapter. It took me three weeks to write this thing.

No one really knew what to say right now. There was a long pause of awkward silence - This is what I write when I have no idea what to do. Deal with it.

In the TV show, Casey lost his dad twice and he wasn't super emotional about it, that's why he forgave Fishface so quickly. And Casey has a reputation as not exactly being 100% sane. Also the chapter was getting too long for me to write any drama and I just wanted to finish it.

I once saw the same fish die three times. It was insane.

BTW, these aren't in chronological order in case you haven't noticed. It may be kind of confusing if you didn't realize that. Pay attention to the part at the top, that tells you when the chapter takes place.

So school started again. That's (partially) why the update schedule is going to start being farther out. Also I want to work on other stuff.

Hope you enjoyed. Do you guys like these longer chapters or the normal length? This chapter and the last one just kinda ended up like this, it wasn't intentional.

I know I always say this but reviews would be appreciated. I got stuck on the chapter I'm currently writing, I'm thinking about switching to another one. I'd like some ideas. I'm realizing that this story may not make a lot of sense unless you were really invested in Four Corners of the Earth but that story wasn't the best. I read it again, it wasn't as bad as I thought but this story is still better.