A/N- Here is a nice long chapter…I thought I'd do something I haven't done properly before in a chapter… I thought I'd do shout-outs!
Spootycup: I'm glad you're enjoying the story…and Raph and Leo interaction is so much fun to write! Am I right? ;-)
Lioness Goddess: I had to give Raph an argument where he had a fair point…doesn't ever happen otherwise!
BubblyShell22: Thanks for the review! And here's the butt kicking ya wanted!
Chibiroseangel: meeps and hides more is here…uh, I come in peace!
As they stood, in a stale-mate situation, Leo was hurriedly thinking of some way to distract Hun and get Donnie back off him. Glancing at Ramakha, he saw the purest loathing in the man's eyes.
"Ramakha," Leo hissed in the man's ear, "do you want revenge for what he did to your family?"
"Yes…of course I do!" Ramakha answered stiffly, fighting off tears as he thought of his lost family.
"Then take it now – kill him for what he did to you!" Leo raised his voice a little and Ramakha gladly took the advice, lunging at Hun and knocking Donnie out of his grip. Raph jumped off the back of Hun and Ramakha set about fighting the man responsible for the deaths of his wife, Karamina, and his son, Kai. Hun fought viciously and ruthlessly, forcing Ramakha's brothers to join the fray after he swung a particularly nasty punch and hit Roshiri as Ramakha ducked. The four reptilian brothers looked on in silence, each as anxious as the next to see the outcome of the fight. But as soon as a badly aimed kick from Hun struck Leo square in the chest, throwing him backwards off his feet, Mikey and Donnie charged forward to attack Hun and help the humans. Raph quickly helped Leo to his feet before also leaping into the battle, an angry growl coming from the back of his throat as he did so. Leo, although initially a little shocked from the impact of Hun's foot, shook himself back to reality and grabbed one of Hun's flailing arms, twisting it round and kicking him in the face.
"Nice moves," Roshiri yelled to Mikey as the turtle looped on of his Nunchuks around Hun's neck and flipped over his head, swinging round to kick him in the back with both feet.
"Thanks," Mikey grinned lop-sidedly as Hun staggered forwards.
"No problem!" Roshiri chuckled as he ducked Hun's fists. Making eye-contact with Ronald and Reginald, he formulated a plan and the three of them positioned themselves so that Hun wouldn't be able to hold off all three of them at once. Ronald swept Hun off his feet while the giant man attempted to strangle Reginald and Roshiri was quick off the mark with a follow-up whack round the head with a dustbin lid. Hun groaned but, with one more blow from Donnie's Bo staff, was soon out cold.
"Now, let's rescue your friends," Reginald smiled warmly to Raph.
"What about my revenge on Hun?"
"We'll finish that later – we will get our chance and you will get the revenge you so badly want, Ramakha, you can be certain of that," Roshiri clapped his brother on the back and followed Raph and Reginald round to the front of the house. The door was flung open and the group cautiously took a few uneasy steps inside.
"Why do I get the feeling we're not alone in here?" Mikey gulped.
"Maybe because we ain't alone," Raph snarled as a light switched on and about twenty Foot ninjas revealed themselves, surrounding the eight companions and blocking the entrance to the Living Room, the very room in which April and Casey were being held hostage.
"Great – now what do we do?" Ronald grumbled, drawing out a single Katana and preparing to fight.
"We fight, we rescue Casey and April, we get out; that's the plan," Raph explained simply.
"And when did I approve of such a hasty plan?" Leo inquired, standing directly behind Raph, causing the hot-headed turtle to jump when he was spoken to.
"Since we never had time to listen to one of your fancy ideas, that's when!" Raph shot back at his brother. Leo rolled his eyes and took a deep breath – now would not be a good time to lose his temper with Raphael, however tiresome he was being!
"My ideas work, Raph, unlike many of yours!"
"How do you know that? You never give me a chance to lead so I never get the chance to form a plan and see if it works!" Raph shot back.
"He has a point," Mikey nodded.
"Yeah, but Leo's plans are more thoroughly thought through – Raph tends to just rush into everything he does without thinking about the consequences," Donnie said in defence of Leo.
"Will you two stop fighting each other and fight the Foot ninjas, please?" growled Ramakha, looking exasperated.
"You know what?" Donnie laughed, "I think that's the best suggestion yet!" he and Mikey looked at each other with huge grins on their faces before jumping into battle with the Foot ninjas. Raph and Leo, after one final glare at each other, followed the examples of their brothers. The four human brothers also joined them and Donnie could tell that it was getting ever harder for them to be able to honestly say that they wanted him and his brothers dead.
"Mikey! There's an opening," gasped Leo as he fought alongside his little brother, "you and I will make a break for it and get April and Casey out – RAPH! DONNIE! YOU TWO KEEP FIGHTING!" Leo finished, barking the orders out to everyone.
"You got it, oh fearless leader," Raph mumbled sarcastically.
"Raph, will you just shut up for once!" Donnie uncharacteristically snapped, knowing that his unusual display of aggression would shut his hot-headed brother up for a while.
"Geez, chill out, dude," Raph murmured, taken by surprise.
"C'mon, we'd better follow Leo's orders…he and Mikey are going to get Casey and April out."
"Got it," Raph nodded at last.
"Mikey, let's go," Leo hissed to his brother. Mikey grinned and the two fought with a suddenly enhanced vigour to get into the living room. Raph and Donnie followed and held the Foot off in the doorway while Mikey and Leo ventured inside.
"Guys, you finally made it!" Casey grinned nervously.
"We're so glad you came," April added.
"But now you must leave," Casey finished.
"What? We're not leaving without you – we're here to rescue you," Leo explained, feeling a little confused.
"Yeah, dudes, we gotta bust you outta here!" Mikey laughed, starting to untie their human friends.
"You have to leave here – if Hun finds out then he'll set this place to self-destruct. It will explode, causing the houses either side of it to join it as a heap of rubble and bodies."
"Who lives in the other houses?" Leo asked.
"Other prisoners…Hun and the Foot are capturing anyone who had any involvement with defeating Shredder or with refusing to help him or simply because they tried to report crimes by the Foot." April sighed.
"So just get out," Casey pleaded as Mikey finished untying April and began to release Casey while Leo freed the others and fought off any Foot ninjas that got past Donnie and Raph. Suddenly, Hun burst through the door, knocking Donnie and Raph unconscious as he swung his huge fists at them without mercy.
"So, you green freaks want me to blow this place into oblivion?" he cackled.
"Not really, no," Mikey answered, gulping.
"Mikey, we weren't supposed to answer that!" Leo hissed.
"It doesn't matter – I would do it with or without your agreement," chuckled Hun mirthlessly, cracking his knuckles and setting fire to a fuse which led to a pile of dynamite in a nearby closet, "three minutes…" he laughed as he and the other Foot ninjas left the house and locked the turtles in.
"Three minutes?" April gasped in disbelief, "We'll never make it out in time!"
"You and Casey get Donnie and Raph out of here – we'll deal with all the prisoners. Ramakha, Roshiri, Ronald and Reginald, will you help us?" Leo turned to the four human brothers who had entered the living room.
"Of course – we are your allies until Marcie is dead," Roshiri answered, lifting one of the young men who had also been tied up. Ramakha was cradling the small girl and Ronald was supporting the other man. Reginald smashed a window and climbed out to help everyone out.
"Mikey," Leo looked to his brother, "We will have to get into the other houses either side of this one and help everyone else out. We can climb out of an upstairs window and jump to the other rooftops and get in through their upstairs windows."
"No problem, big bro," Mikey grinned, "we can handle this!"
Leo and Mikey clambered into the upstairs window of the right hand house. Leo made a time check; two minutes to go.
"Mikey, go to the bottom of this house with a prisoner and smash a front window. I'll do the same in the left-hand house. Then we get the other prisoners and hand them out to Roshiri and the others." Leo ordered, not giving Mikey time to reply before making his way to the rooftop the other side of the house they had just been fighting in. Mikey groaned but ran to the living room in the house he was in, untied a teenage girl and her father, both of whom could walk. He smashed a window and helped them into the safe hands of Ramakha and Roshiri.
Leo was now in the house the other side of the one set to self-destruct. Gasping for breath, he ran into the living room and found no prisoners. Panicking, he turned and ran to the kitchen; nothing.
"Oh shell…" he trailed off, racing upstairs and searching the bedrooms. There were no prisoners anywhere. He came to the last bedroom, knowing there must be prisoners in there, but there wasn't anyone. Hearing something downstairs, he took off down the stairs in three leaps, reaching the bottom with a 'thump'. Rushing into the living room, he encountered three Foot Tech ninjas, who rapidly turned invisible before him and started to attack him from all sides. They were soon joined by Hun, who grabbed a startled Leo by his bandana tails. Leo yelled as he was lifted off the ground and flung roughly into the kitchen, stopping only when he rammed into a cupboard. Looking up, he saw Hun above him, holding a kitchen chair and readying to smash it over the unfortunate blue turtle's head…
"Reginald, shouldn't Leonardo have been in the other house by now?" Ronald called to his brother from where he'd been talking to April and Casey, explaining the whole scenario to them.
"He should have been…" mumbled Reginald to himself. Raph and Donnie were regaining consciousness and Raph leapt to his feet, swaying slightly at first, and rushed into the building Leo had been in, followed shortly by Casey, who was worried for the red-clad turtle's welfare.
"Is everyone out of that house?" Donnie asked, looking over the total of eleven people, not including April and Casey, who were now sat in front of him. Seven were conscious and four were not; this presented Donnie with a problem. The ones who were conscious were going to have to be tricked into thinking they'd imagined him and his brothers.
"Everyone's out, bro," Mikey grinned, emerging from the house with thirty seconds to go before they blew up, "but we need to get a bit further away from here!"
"What about Leo, Raph and Casey?" April cut in.
"They'll catch up," Roshiri replied, as he carried one of the unconscious prisoners to safety.
"Put him down, Hun!" Raph slurred, still a little groggy as Hun abandoned the kitchen chair and dragged the blue-clad turtle to his feet.
"Give me three good reasons…" Hun smirked.
"He's my brother; I don't need a reason to save him from a jerk like you!" growled Raph, drawing his Sais.
"And I'm a friend of the family," added Casey, not wanting to be left out.
"You have twenty seconds," Hun laughed, throwing Leo into Raph and sending the two turtles sprawling. Bursting out of the front door, Hun made a quick escape down the street.
"Fifteen seconds," Casey reminded the turtles as he helped both Raph and Leo to their feet.
"We gotta get outta here…" Raph moaned, rubbing his head.
"How many seconds have we got left, Casey?" Leo slurred, staggering forward a few steps.
"Ten…let's go!"
"They're not gonna make it!" April bit her lip shakily as they peered round a corner at the house. Finally, with eight seconds to go, Casey ran out with Raph and Leo close on his heels. They continued to run and made it just far enough away not to get caught up in the initial blast of the self-destructing house. However, they were showered in debris as they ran towards where the others were. Eventually they reached them and, apart from a few minor cuts and bruises, they seemed for the most part unharmed.
"Hey, we made it," Casey laughed, twirling April round in his arms.
"Yeah, and congratulations you two – we haven't had a chance to say that properly yet!" Raph laughed.
"Thanks, guys," April hugged each of the turtles in turn.
"Um, I hate to interrupt this reunion," Reginald cut in sheepishly, "but we do need to keep going. We can leave all the other prisoners here and tell them that this was all a dream or something."
"Who are you, pal?" Casey stepped defensively out to face Reginald.
"I'm Reginald and these are my brothers: Roshiri, Ramakha and Ronald."
"You!" Roshiri hissed, striding forward so his face was millimetres from that of Casey.
"Me?" Casey asked, befuddled.
"You were the one that came to the aid of the turtles on your motorbike that night at Second Time Around, the antique shop."
"Yeah, that was me – wait, how do you know about that? The guys wouldn't have told you…would they?" Casey looked round to where Raph and Mikey were stood.
"We didn't say a word!" Mikey held his hands up in innocence.
"Yeah…it's kinda a sensitive subject," Raph added under his breath.
"We were there," Ramakha also joined them, now having explained to all the remaining prisoners that the turtles weren't real and that it had only been humans helping and that they should all go home!
"You were there? But how could ya have been there? I didn't see ya!"
"Wait a minute," April gasped, "you're the Foot Elite! You and your master were responsible for destroying my shop, forcing us to run away and almost…" she stopped and bit her lip, "I don't believe this!"
"April, calm down," Donnie tried.
"Calm down? Why are you working with them!" Casey answered for April.
"Because we have no other choice…" Raph sighed.
"And you're ok with this?" April asked disbelievingly, turning to Leo and searching his face for any signs of an ally on the matter.
"We didn't have a choice," he muttered.
"You could've said no!" Casey pointed out bitterly.
"Would now be a good time to point out that we're also Shredder's brother…not by blood but close enough; like the turtles consider you a member of their family, he was a member of ours." Ronald explained.
"I can't believe this," April said again, shaking her head.
"We can explain later," Leo spoke softly and everyone turned to listen, "right now; can we please concentrate on getting away from here before we're discovered?"
"Best suggestion yet," Ramakha mumbled, making eye contact with Raph.
"I'm not going anywhere with them!" April protested, "Not until someone explains why this is all ok!"
"April, please-" Raph tried.
"No, Raph, I won't."
"C'mon, Ape, even Leo is ok with this!" Mikey coaxed.
"Ape, we'll go with them for now – I trust the guys' judgement and I'm gonna follow them to the end, and I want you with me," Casey put an arm round his wife.
"Ok, I guess I can give them one chance," April stood up and followed them.
"Guys, shouldn't we contact Master Splinter? He's bound to be worried about us by now," Leo suddenly changed the subject.
"Got it," Don pulled out his Shell Cell, "Master Splinter? You there?"
"Donatello? Is that you? Where are you?"
"I'm not exactly sure – I'll explain later."
"And your brothers? Are they with you? Are you all safe?"
"We're all safe, Sensei, and we've now got April and Casey with us."
"But I can also hear some unfamiliar voices…who are they?"
"Um…I don't really want to have to explain this over Shell Cell…"
"Where can I find you?"
"How about you meet us outside the old Foot Headquarters?"
"Donatello! You are not serious?"
"Yes, Master Splinter, I'm serious. We'll explain later. Ten minutes enough time for you to get there?"
"Certainly. Goodbye, Donatello – and make sure you are all very careful!"
"Don't worry, Sensei, we will be." Don hung up and turned to his brothers, "we're meeting Master Splinter outside the Foot HQ. That ok with you guys?"
"Sure," Mikey replied.
"I was talking to Roshiri and his brothers!"
"Sorry, dudes,"
"Not a problem, Michelangelo – and that is fine. Your Sensei is called Splinter?" Ronald laughed but turned suddenly serious when he mentioned Splinter.
"Yes…why?" Leo narrowed his eyes.
"I believe we owe him as much of an apology as we owe you, Leonardo, and you, Miss. O'Neill."
"It's Mrs. Jones now!" April corrected proudly.
"Why do you need to apologise to Master Splinter?" Leo inquired, smiling at April's comment.
"And I think you owe all of us an apology – do you have any idea what you put us through!" Raph snapped.
"Not now, Raph!" Leo chided his brother, "We need to meet Sensei."
A/N-Ok, you've read the story – please review!
