Randall had been learning more about self defenses other than what he already knew, but he wasn't a turtle and wasn't all that strong either in real big strength, but he did have his own strength.
He was going on patrols sometimes with the turtles. He didn't carry a weapon, as if he needed to go invisible, it would get in the way of that ability. His invisibility gave him that big advantage to his own fighting abilities.
He kept up in speed with them alright. The turtles would make sure he had his contacts in before they would let him come with them. Randall needed to be able to see where he was going and what was coming at him when he was out in public.
Though Randall had been training, he still stayed out of fights where there were a lot of humans. If there were like a few, then he would secretly join the turtles, but he made sure to never be seen.
He knew how to unblend just enough to scare the humans. He knew that a lot of humans were scared of snakes and he played the role just fine in that. At least he still got to scare humans, just not little kids. But if it came to more than scaring, he would also use his tail a lot as a weapon too.
The turtles sometimes wondered how he managed to stay out of trouble when he was with them, but his special abilities made him a great ally on their side. But Randall let them handle the bigger fights.
One night, Mikey and Randall went out on a night of the town, just having fun, when they got ambushed by a group of eight Foot ninja.
Mikey had his nunchuckus ready. Randall didn't like that they had seen him.
"Well, what do we have here? A turtle and a lizard freak." One ninja mocked.
Randall growled and bared his teeth. "Come and get it, you stupid human!"
The ninjas attacked.
Mikey hit the ninjas with his sticks. The three that came at Randall had a big surprise coming.
Randall instantly vanished and he got down on all eights and got away.
The three ninjas crashed into one another, knocking each other down and unconscious.
Mikey had seen it happen and he laughed at that. Randall was resourceful. Mikey finished off the last few and they regrouped.
"Are you alright, Randall?" Mikey asked.
"Yes. Are you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." The two started to head back to the lair when another group found them and it was the same odds again.
Even at one point, Randall and Mike were running the same way until they came to the end of a huge building that was a dead end to other buildings. They turned to face their enemies.
"Be ready." Mikey said.
"I know." Randall replied.
Each of them had to deal with five.
Randall was more of a running type. But he led them toward the side of the building and he jumped over the side.
"Randall!" Mikey cried out.
The ninjas looked over the side of the building and didn't see anything.
"Find him!"
Three went down the fire escape. The two others were then met with tail whips to the face, knocking them down.
Mikey was locked in combat with his five. One of them had a knife drawn and got close without it being seen. The knife met Mikey's left side. He cried out, but managed to beat the ninjas unconscious.
Mikey was instantly down when he held his side and saw the blood.
Randall had gone back down the building to deal with the other ninjas. He surprised them all in the alley with scares and being tripped up, knocked unconscious. Then he went back up to regroup with Mikey.
He looked around for the turtle and he saw him on the ground of the roof. He ran over to him.
"Mike, what happened?" Randall asked in true concern. He saw the blood on the roof.
Mike was barely conscious. "Knife!" He cried out.
Randall looked around and he saw a knife on the ground not far away from an unconscious ninja.
"Ran…dall… call my brothers." Mike gave Randall his shell cell.
Don had shown him how to use one. He took the phone and hit Don's number.
Don picked up.
"Hello, Mikey."
"It's Randall, Don. Your brother's been hurt by ninjas. Can you find us?" Randall asked.
"Do you know where you are?" Don asked.
"No. But you said these phones have trackers."
"Yes. We'll find you, just stay there and look after him." Don said. "What happened?"
"He was stabbed!"
"Alright. Don out." Don said and hung up.
"They're coming." Randall said.
Mikey was fading.
Randall knew he had to apply pressure to the wound, but with what? He looked to his left and there were sheets hanging out on a line. Perfect.
"I'll be right back." Randall said.
Randall hurried to the line and gripping it carefully, he climbed out to it and grabbed a sheet.
If there was one thing he missed was a tear in the rope and it couldn't hold his weight. It tore and Randall found himself falling through the air, but still hanging on the rope and the sheet. He couldn't help the scream that came from his throat.
The rope took him into the wall of the other building. He smashed one of his lower hands and his other hands got rope burn on them as he had slid down a bit. But he had stayed on it.
He got down and climbed up the fire escape with the sheet.
He got back to Mikey and though he was in pain himself, he wrapped the sheet around Mikey's middle. He laid his body across him to put pressure on the wound with his own body weight. He had Mike on his non-wounded side.
While he waited for the other turtles to arrive, Randall watched the ninjas around them. They stayed out. He also looked at his own hands under the moonlight. They were tore up from the rope and his lower right hand hurt more worse from being smashed. It had hit at the wrist.
It wasn't more than ten minutes later that the Battle Shell pulled in down at the street and the three older turtles climbed the fire escape.
They came over to them and saw Randall had his body draped over Mikey.
Randall got off now that they were there. Mike's blood had soaked the sheet. He was unconscious.
"What happened?" Leo demanded.
"We were ambushed by Foot ninjas, twice. We got away from the first ones, but were ascended with from this batch too. He was stabbed." Randall explained. "I got a sheet from over there. The rope broke on me while I was getting it and I hurt my hands."
As Randall was standing, his left lower hand cradled his right one.
Don took the sheet off of Mikey and he saw the wound was deep, but it had seemed to have stopped bleeding for the moment. "We have to get him back to the lair fast." Don said.
The sheet was put back on to stifle any further bleeding. Raph carried Mikey gently down the fire escape.
"You did well in stopping the bleeding, Randall. Laying on him like that helped." Don said.
Randall had walked down the fire escape's stairs and then Leo picked him up and climbed down the ladder at the bottom. Then he put him down on his own feet again.
Raph drove the truck back home while Don attended to Mikey in the back. He also had a look at Randall's hands. Three were injured. But they would wait till they got home before his hands were treated.
At home in the infirmary, Splinter was called out to help. Randall stayed out as Don and Splinter went to work on Mikey. The wound had to be examined and sewn up.
On the outside, while waiting, Leo saw the burns on Randall's hands and went to the bathroom for some ointment and bandages.
Randall grimaced and winced as the medicine stung his burns. His two upper hands were the burned ones. The lower right one was either sprained or broken. He sure couldn't move it, but bruising was becoming apparent.
Mikey was soon stable and he was hooked up on an IV and heart monitor just to be safe. His wound was sewn up and while Splinter stayed at his son's side, Don finally saw to the injuries on Randall's hands.
Leo had done fine on the upper ones, but the lower one was x-rayed and found to have a small fracture in the wrist.
Don gave Randall a sedative and he set the wrist, putting it in a cast.
Randall was now asleep on a cot a few feet away. A blanket was put over him to let him sleep it off.
Leo and Raph came in to see how Mikey was doing and he was okay. Just sleeping.
"Randall sure did go to great lengths to save Mikey tonight." Don said.
"Yes. Considering his three injured hands." Splinter said.
"He had a sheet wrapped around Mikey and he was lying over his injured side, Master Splinter." Leo said.
"With his hands hurting, it would have hurt too much to put pressure on the wound that way. But it did seem to help stem the bleeding." Don said.
"Why don't you three go to bed and I'll stay up with them." Splinter said. "It has been a long night."
"I'll be down in a few hours." Leo said.
Leo, Don, and Raph went to bed. They were just glad that Mikey was alright and their newest friend.
Klunk had also found his way into the infirmary and he curled up next to Mikey. Splinter allowed it as long as the cat didn't try to play with the tubes.
Then Splinter looked over at Randall. His breathing seemed steady enough. He wished he knew what shamed this lizard so from his past. Aside from what he said were bad childhood memories.
If one thing was clear now, Randall wouldn't be training or patrolling for awhile. At least until the burns healed. It would take longer for the broken wrist to heal.
If there was something about meditation, there were sure to be answers revealed. Something came to Splinter then. He got himself comfortable and making sure Mikey was stable, he set himself up to go into meditation on Randall. He had to find out.
He got into a deep sense of peace and his mind entered the astral plane. He tried to find Randall's aura, or mind.
Splinter did put a hand on Randall's head back in his body. He soon did find Randall's mind in the astral plane.
"Master Splinter, what are you doing here?" Randall asked.
"I came to help you, Randall. I need to know what is causing you so many problems. Please allow me to help you. I know you have some big secret from the past that you are not telling us about."
"I can't tell you, Master Splinter. You have given me a far better life than I could ever hope to have back home. I just can't reveal this secret." Randall said.
"I just hope that you will tell us someday."
"I can't."
"Alright. But I want to thank you again for saving Michelangelo."
"Welcome. He's my closest friend."
"Well, I'll let you rest now." Splinter said and he came out of his meditation.
What was this big secret that Randall refused to tell?
It was right after that that Randall also woke up from the sedation. He was groggy from the sedative. He really wished they would lay off about his secret. He still wasn't ready to tell them of one part of his past.
Randall saw Splinter move his hand off his head.
"Why was your hand on my head?"
"For better connection with you." Splinter replied.
Randall looked around himself and saw he was on his back on a cot in the infirmary. He shifted and moved the blanket a bit and saw his bandaged upper hands. He wouldn't be able to hold anything with them for a little while.
He pulled the blanket off and looked at his other hands. His left one was fine, but the right one was in a cast. He had only one good hand. He remembered then what had happened.
"How's Mike?" Randall asked.
"He's stable. He's hooked up to a heart monitor to make sure he stays alive." Splinter said.
"It was that bad, the wound?"
"Yes. It was deep in his abdominal region. Donatello patched him up. Nothing is certain right now. We are watching him."
Randall didn't want to imagine if it had been him that had been stabbed. It did give him a chill to his belly to think about it.
"Where are the others?"
"They went to bed. Leonardo will be here soon. You should get some more rest, Randall. And I'm grateful that you saved my youngest son despite your own injuries."
"Saving them is still kind of new to me, but I do want to be there for them just as they have been there for me."
Randall's demeanor had been changing more from just staying with this family.
The drug in his system was making him tired again just to do too much talking. Randall drifted back to sleep.
A couple hours later, Leo got up and went down to relieve his father to go to bed. He saw that his brother and his friend were both out.
"Have either of them woken up?" Leo asked.
"Randall did once, but he was out again quick."
"Thanks. I'll take over now, Father." Leo said.
"Good night, my son." Splinter said and left for his room. He was tired.
As Leo sat in the chair next to Mikey, he started talking. "Mikey, I know we are all hard on you, but we just want you to realize how serious things can be out in the real world. Like what happened tonight according to Randall. He's silly enough, but even he knows when to be serious out there. He did save you tonight after all."
"You do give our lives meaning, little brother. You give us some fun in our lives when we otherwise wouldn't have any when things get too stressful around here. We don't want to lose you. Please come back to us." Leo said, some tears coming to his eyes. But he rubbed them away.
Mikey was still out, and his breathing was stable. Leo just hoped nothing would turn south with his baby brother. Then he looked over at Randall. The lizard looked so peaceful while he was sleeping.
"What can I say about you, Randall? I know you still have your big secret, but even though I have only known you for a month and a half, you have proven your worth to us. Especially tonight. I just hope Mikey comes out of this okay." Leo said. "You keep on proving that you are our friend."
Leo kept watch for the rest of the night and ended up falling asleep on Mikey's bed.