Chapter 3

"Helicopters"

Thud thud thud… came the steady sound of Raph's fist hitting a tattered old punching bag in the dojo.

Sleep had deprived him the last few nights thanks to the pain in his shoulder coupled with his refusal to take the pain meds, in case someone else needed them later, and the green eyed vixen that felt it necessary to haunt his dreams. He might find it ridiculous to hope for a relationship with a woman but, Damn it, he was still a man. Their delicate curves and soft flesh were something he still found enticing and beautiful. Sometimes the desire to touch it, just once, just to know, was hard to stifle.

He slammed his knee into the heavy bag with a grunt, making it sway.

"Having trouble sleeping?"

Raph jumped spun around to see who had snuck up on him. "Damn it , Leo." He snapped.

"Jumpy too." Leo laid a couple of hits into the bag. "You alright."

"Just sore." Raph sighed.

"There's some pain meds." Leo said as he moved to look at Raph's battle wound.

Raph shook his head, as Leo inspected the stitching.

"She did a good job." Leo stated, taking a step back. Then shook his head, " I can't believe you went over there."

Raph let out a loud sigh. "Did you come in here to lecture me, Leo?"

Shaking his head, Leo turned and laid another strike on the bag. "No, I came to get ready for training."

"It's that time already?" Raph blinked.

"Just about." As usual, Leonardo was early.

With a tired sigh Raph joined his brother in stretching everything, except his injured shoulder and the arm that was pinned to his side. Before long the others joined in. And when splinter was late, as happened more often these days, Leonardo took over leading the training being careful to do things that wouldn't cause Raphael to risk further injury to his shoulder.

The wait for night fall was rather uneventful. Don tinkered on some stuff in his work shop and the other three spent their morning showing off their gaming skills. Michelangelo rambunctiously rubbed in every win.

"You sure you can keep up with the speed demon." Mikey referred to himself as he taunted his injured brother.

"My shoulder's what hurt, numb nuts, not my legs. I'm gunna run circles around you." Raph taunted back as they hurried down the sewer tunnel, exited to get out of the layer.

Mikey flipped about ahead of his brothers. "Well I'm running circles around your circles, man."

"Not if I break your legs." Raph grinned mischievously as he picked up his pace.

"Guys, we are ninja. We are supposed to be quiet." Leo called after the two.

Donatello kept pace with his blue banded brother. "You've been telling them that for almost twenty years, if it hasn't sunk in by now than it probably won't."

The four brother's dove between the shadows of the alleys and roof tops. All four ducked low as a helicopter flew overhead. It's spot light beaming down on the city below.

"What do you think they are looking for?" Mikey asked.

"Probably a runner." Raph said as he peered over the edge of the building hoping to see said possible runner.

Don watched the helicopter through a pair of binoculars. "I don't think so guys. It's not a police helicopter."

"Then who's is it?" Leo asked as he borrowed the binoculars and took a look for himself.

"No way to know. They're not marked." Don said with a shrug.

Mikey moved to a higher vantage point on the roof. "Look there's another one."

"It is New York, Mikey." Raphael said dryly. "There's bound to be more than one."

"No." Don said after joining Michelangelo. "It's looking for something too."

Leo pointed out several more with spot lights on, further out into the city. "Maybe we should call it tonight, guys. With all this activity it's just not safe."

There was a chorus of grumbles behind him.

"I'm sorry, but with Raph hurt I just…"

Raph interrupted. "Are you serious? We'll lay low... anything. But I can't spend another minute stuck in that sewer. I need some fucking air."

Leonardo sighed. He didn't like it. With all the surface activity it was dangerous to be out. But going back to the layer ran the risk of Raph going out on his own later. "We need to be careful…"

"Aw ya!" Mikey expressed his excitement with a fist pump.

"But," Leo continued. "We lay low. And we are only out an hour. Got it?"

"Got it." the other three agreed.

Leo looked back at the flock of helicopters that buzzed over New York. "It's only an hour." He said to himself, then followed his brothers to play 'don't get spotted.'

Running through the shadows and tempting fate at the edge of spot lights, the brothers were rather enjoying themselves. It was like a game of ninja tag only they got to all work together and noise was a little less of a worry. Which was good cause Mikey would break out in laughter every time Raph forgot he had his arm in a splint and ended up face planting or landing hard on his side.

"Son of a bitch!" Raph cursed as he crashed into a dumpster in his attempt to vault himself into it after his brother. He ended up into it, just not gracefully. Fed up he ripped the sling off his arm and threw it into the garbage he was now sitting in.

Mikey was cackling in the opposing corner. "Man, your killing me. Are you going to be able to go ten minutes without trying to break yourself?"

Raph threw a peace of trash at his brother, but he couldn't help but chuckle at himself. He always did have a hard time adjusting to change.

The helicopter that swept the ally with its spot light caused the two to duck a little further into the dumpster. The sound of the following struggle brought them out.

Donatello spun his bo as he blocked a barrage of gun fire from a row of men in unmarked black military style uniforms.

Leo leapt down from a fire escape taking out one man on the far left flank as he landed. His swords swung up and through the guns of two others. his fists, with the hilts of his swords, then met the owner's faces.

Mikey flipped himself into the fight. He landed hard on one man's out streaked arms as he snapped his nunchuku forward hitting his opponent on the right flank in the sides of the man's head.

Raph used the cover of Don's spinning bo as the two moved in on the center. As soon as the guns shifted toward their brothers they attacked.

Don used the reach of his bo to knock the guns down then snap the end of his weapon back up into the face of one opponent. He then swinging around into the side and gut of another. He finished up with a solid hit to the side man's helmet and another to his gut.

Meanwhile Raphael slammed into one opponent with his good shoulder and caught hold of the rail cover on another opponent's gun. He threw all his weight onto the man he knocked to the ground while he pulled hard on the gun twisting it up so that the shoulder strap wrapped around the man's neck. With his foot on the man's shoulder he pulled till the man ceased to struggle, but released before death became a certain outcome.

"Let's move." Leo ordered.

No one argued as they quickly disappeared into the sewers below. Donatello lagging just a bit as he took the time to pick up one of the projectiles that had been shot at them, once below he inspected the object. "Tranq darts?"

Leonardo looked over Don's shoulder at the dart. "Think they were after us?"

Don shrugged. "Maybe."

"But who would be after us in helicopters?" Michelangelo asked.

"Bishop." Raph growled out the name of an old enemy they knew all too well, for he was the monster that tormented their darkest of knight mares and they each bore the deep unforgiving scars of his sadism.

"God I hope you're wrong." Leo voiced what the others were thinking.

The walk back to the layer was slow, cautious, and eerily silent. None of them would sleep well tonight.