Chapter 13: The Trap
"Casey, April, there are some Kraang coming your way," Raph announced over radio. "They aren't too close, but make sure to stay close to cover."
"Gotcha!" Casey replied.
Raph let his eyes wander over the screens, searching for anything the others must know, any sign that the Kraang had detected them, routes they could use for escape if the worst happened.
There was nothing. The Kraang were acting pretty Kraang-y while his brothers, April, and Casey were moving closer into the building.
He frowned a bit, as one of the Kraang on the screen stopped, but relaxed when the alien continued its path.
But then another movement caught his attention, and his eyes grew wide with shock. Where did this big transporter in front of the new Kraang facility come from, and why was it spilling out Kraang like crazy?
"Guys!" he called out. "You're getting company, lots of company! Get out of there!"
"Understood," Leo replied. "We need an escape rou…"
That second, the connection broke down.
Raph checked the monitors if he could detect one of his brothers or his friends, but with a terrible buzzing sound they went all dark.
Raph gasped for breath.
"Leo!?" he called out. "Do you copy? Donnie? Casey? ANYONE!"
No reaction.
Raph froze. The sudden stillness sent a shiver up his spine.
An explosion made him jump to his good foot.
This had been close! Whatever was going on out there, it wasn't good. And his brothers, April, and Casey, they definitely were in danger.
But what could he do? Drive the Shellraiser into the building, right through the front wall? What good would that do? He had no idea where the others were right now!
A second explosion made him flinch. He reached for his crutches. He knew he was in no position to fight, but he had to do something.
As fast as possible he made his way to the side door and it opened with its usual chime.
But as soon as the door had opened, his eyes widened as he saw his brothers running towards the Shellraiser, Casey and April right behind him, and dozens of Footbots on their heels.
"What are you doing?" Leo called out to him. "Get back inside!"
And with that he slipped past Raph and into the driver's seat.
Raph tried to back away to give the others room to get inside, but there wasn't enough time. So while Donnie managed to get past him as well, Mikey crashed right into him, knocked him off his feet, and he landed on his carapace with Mikey on top of him. Well, at least he was out of the way now, he realized as April and Casey jumped inside.
The door closed behind them, just in time to hold off some laser shots and Leo stepped on the gas.
There was some rumble of wheels and sounds of something being crashed, and Raph assumed that Leo had run over some of the Kraangbots.
But Raph could still hear laser shots and the annoying Kraang beeping noises, but after a while they were getting more and more silent.
It was only then that Leo took a deep breath.
"Everybody okay?" he asked.
The others replied with confirming murmurs and nods.
Raph looked from one to the other, and yes, they looked fine, a bit exhausted maybe, a bit shocked and disappointed, but not harmed.
Only Mikey's eyes darted around the Shellraiser's interior in a scared, panicked way. He hadn't moved since he had landed on top of Raph and so was still kneeling on Raph's plastron.
Raph hated to see his brother like that, but he wasn't very good in giving comfort, at least not with all the others around them. But he had to do something to make Mikey snap out of his panic.
"Are you comfy, Mikey?" he decided to say.
Mikey turned to him swiftly, first looking into Raph's face kind of surprised, which Raph answered with a frown and a twisted mouth, then Mikey's eyes wandered lower, and he finally seemed to realize that it was Raph he was sitting on.
"Oh, sorry," he called out and jumped to his feet with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his head. "Did I hurt you?" The sheepish grin turned into a concerned look.
"Nah." Raph shrugged it off. "I've been hurt worse in the past weeks." He nodded towards his broken ankle, but then it was his turn to look worried.
The broken ankle… Without it, he could have been out there, without it, he could have helped his brothers.
But a comment of Casey didn't give him time to deepen that thought.
"Now, that didn't go as planned," he said.
"What exactly happened?" Raph asked. "I lost the connection over radio and then the screens went black."
"I'm not sure," Donnie relied. "Everything was going just fine, just like planned, smoothly, and then bamm! All of a sudden, it took a totally different course with a power outage and Kraang attacking us from all directions."
"Yeah, like they were expecting us!" Mikey added.
The others shared a look as realization dawned on them.
"Hey, maybe they were expecting us!" April called out.
Donnie pondered on that, shake his head slowly.
"We thought it was so easy to hack their security system because they didn't have time to install Kraang technology," he said, "but maybe time has never been a factor, maybe…"
"…it's been a trap for us," Leo finished the sentence.
Raph felt a lump build in his throat. A trap. His brothers, his friends, they had walked right into a trap, and none of them had realized, last of all himself. And when tings had made a turn for the worse, he hadn't been able to help them; on the contrary, he had been in their way when they had jumped into the safety of the Shellraiser.
He glared angrily at his broken ankle. And all of this because of this stupid broken ankle! Without it, he could have joined them on their mission, and Donnie would have taken the guard post like he usually did, and Donnie would have known what to do in case of a power outage. He would have made the radio work in no time, or he would have detected them with some crazy new gadget and come for their safety. Donnie would have been able to do something.
Raph had just been a burden. Useless. Again.
Still glaring at his ankle, Raph crossed his arms over his plastron, deep, angry wrinkles furrowing his forehead.
Oh, how much he hated this!