CRACK!
My shell hits the brick wall behind me. I can hear the scraping sound as the hard bone scrapes against the brick. The man scraping me across the wall doesn't seem to notice, and throws a punch at my head, which I block easily.
You aren't so tough.
Nunchakus' in hand, I swing expertly and the man is down for the count. Only 5 million Foot Ninjas left and we'll be outta here!
A grin spreads across my face and I rush into the battle. "I'm gonna getcha, you stinky Feet!" I can hear Raphael at the other end of the rooftop groan and yell something to me that sounds like, "Shaddup, Mikey!" right before he kicks a Foot Ninja in the gut. Personally, I am quite fond of my battle cries.
Thwap Thwap Thwap.
Three more guys are knocked out cold, and I move over to where Raph is standing, breathing heavily.
"Quite a workout, bro." I say, and we high-three. Raph's in an unusually cheery mood and I'm going to take advantage of it as much as I can before Leo can screw it up.
Speaking of Leo... he and Donnie leap across the gap between the other rooftop and the one Raph and I are on.
"Any idea why the Purple Dragons were about the rob a jewellry store?"
"Maybe Shredder likes diamonds. Ow!" Raph just hit me on the back of the head. Hard. I grimace and give him a hurt look. I can see him soften a little at my expression– he doesn't want to hurt any of us. He just expresses his emotions through physical action much better than through words. My head is a testament to this, and Raph chooses this night to comment about it.
"Sometimes I think I hit you too hard– a couple screws are loose in there, Mikey. If ya know what I mean." Raphael grins at me and I grin back. Sometimes Raph can be a callous asshole, but for the most part, I understand him. More than Donnie and Leo, anyway.
Leo is shooting Raphael a glare and I stiffen in expectation. Please let there not be a Leo vs. Raph battle tonight... I don't think my nunchaku's are ready for the responsibility of knocking out my brothers. It's tempting though.
Raphael is already headed towards the side of the building. "Let's see if we can't find out what the Purple D's were after, shall we?" Raphael asks and jumps down. I can hear the thud of his landing and glance cautiously at Leonardo. He's gritting his teeth. I think I can even detect some gnashing. Donnie and I exchange a look.
"You comin' Fearless Leada'?"
I laugh a little at the sound of Raph's voice and I try not to think of how mad Leo's probably getting. Instead, I run to the edge of the roof and look down. Raphael is standing below, looking up at me. I wave, pull myself onto the edge of the building and jump down.
Raphael grunts in annoyance and anger when I land on top of him.
"Dude, I'm gonna have to start making you salads. That landing was soft!" I exclaim. Raphael grunts, but he doesn't hit me. Progress! Leonardo and Donatello jump down and land on either side of us.
"Do you really want to find out what they were stealing?" Donatello asks, "I mean, it could be just some random raid."
"Do you think anything is just 'random' when it comes to the Shredder?" Leonardo asks. Raphael smirks. I can see what's going to happen from a mile away. It's like a train wreck. I can't look away. Donnie knows what's going to happen too, and we both back up simultaneously. I have the strangest urge to offer him pork rinds.
"Karai ain't random either, I suppose." Raphael says. Leo growls a little. It's kinda scary.
"Look, guys..." I start, but a look from Leo shuts me up. Christ, he's scary sometimes.
"Karai is an exception."
"Oh, I'm sure. When you have a crush on someone, it's not strategy. It's just random."
"I do not have a crush!"
"Guys, this is entering the field of 'stupid idiotic arguments with no point,'" Donatello says. I snicker. All of Raphael and Leonardo's fights are stupid idiotic arguments with no point.
Leonardo 'hmphs,' but seems to be backing down. Raphael crosses his arms across his plastron and smirks, but doesn't continue provoking Leo.
"With great power comes great responsibility, dudes! We're like the Fantastic Four! We can't fight!"
"Are you mixing movie references now, Mikey? Anyway, that whole movie was about them fighting." Raphael sounds tired. I ignore it.
"Nuh-uh! They learned that when divided, they fall!"
No one says anything. I know I'm right! Raph walks towards a manhole and lifts it up. He jumps down into the sewer, followed close behind by Leo. Donatello gives me a little look.
"I think that was a good statement," he says before jumping down the manhole, leaving me standing in the dark alley, alone.
Nothing. Abso-fudging-lutely nothing.
I fidget a little uncomfortably, but eventually jump down the manhole and pull it until it slams shut with a loud 'clink!' A few hundred feet ahead of me to the south are my brothers, walking silently through the sewage.
From the eyes of an observer, it would seem that we're a perfect family. We live together, train together, fight together. And we always prevail. But I can see the threads unravelling. We're falling apart, and it scares me.
"Wait up guys!" I yell and run through the sewer to catch up to them. They can try their hardest to pull away from each other, but I won't let them. We're a team. We're a family. We're brothers.
And no one can take that away. Not even us.
Author's Note: I wrote this a couple weeks ago when I was still outlining "Change" shameless plug here: go read it! and finally figured out how I was going to end it only recently. Reviews are love, dears. Even if all you say is "OMG wow cool story!" I will be happy.