*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

*Author's Notes: I've returned with a new chapter of 'Slash's Revenge.'

I want to start off by thanking everyone for the amazing, positive feedback on the first chapter of this story. Wow! I was not expecting that at all. To be honest, I was really worried that people were growing tired of me picking on poor Donnie. I'm glad I was wrong. Thank you all for the many favorites, likes, follows, reblogs, and wonderful comments/reviews. I appreciate it very, very much. I'm super glad the story was so well-received.

Next, I want to say a special thank you to my absolutely amazing friend, Joanne N. Grey. She's my new creative consultant/beta reader for 'Slash's Revenge' and she's also one of the most awesome people I've ever 'met.' I love her dearly!

I could probably keep expressing my gratitude to all of you for another fifty pages or more, but I'm guessing you'd much prefer me going right into the second chapter instead. XD

I hope you like it. Thanks for reading. ;)

CJ

Chapter 2 – Red-hot

If Raphael sunk any deeper into the recesses of the tattered, old beanbag chair that he was presently sulking in, he may as well have been sitting directly on the tile floor beneath him. He shifted and wriggled his weight around, in hopes of finding a more relaxing position, but alas, comfort was simply not meant to be.

Figures…

There had seemed to be a black cloud hovering over him from the moment he had crawled out of bed that morning. Nothing was going right, and now, he wasn't even able to properly veg out in his favorite chair. It was just the whipped cream and sprinkles on top of his already rotten day.

Raphael let out an irritated grunt which everyone within hearing range immediately blew off. Not because they didn't care, but because Raph letting out an irritated grunt was nothing out of the ordinary. It was par for the course, actually. In fact, the temperamental turtle would be much more likely to garner his family's attention if he didn't make an irritable noise every few minutes or so.

As if to illustrate that point, Raph snorted in disgust.

This blows…

Burying his face deeper into the pages of the comic book he had been attempting to read for the past fifteen minutes, Raphael did his best to ignore the commotion his three annoying brothers were causing about the lair. Their obnoxiously loud activities while he was trying to concentrate were grating on his very last nerve, as usual. But due to Raphael's exceptionally lousy day, his siblings were even more of a pain in the shell than normal. Thus, making his typical foul mood that much fouler.

He was beginning to understand why his father had gone out for a walk about an hour ago and not come back yet. Raph found himself wishing that he would have gone with. Master Splinter wasn't much of a talker while out on his 'walks,' so the turtle in red would have gotten some much-needed peace and quiet.

With fiery, green eyes, Raphael peered over the top of his comic book at the brother who was currently making the most noise out of the three.

As to be expected, Raph's youngest brother, Michelangelo, was planted in front of the blaring television set, sitting far too close to the monitor for his eyes' own good. He was slouched over with his legs folded out to the side. The bottoms of his oversized feet were pressed together and his elbows were resting on his knee pads. His face donned a dopey grin and his vacant gaze was glued to the TV screen, intently watching his new favorite show, 'Super Robo Mecha Force Five!' Mikey had discovered the show when he had scored a pile of old VHS tapes in a garbage dumpster. The fact that he had found the tapes in the trash should have been a warning, but despite how bad the show was, the youngest turtle had somehow gotten all three of his brothers hooked on the super cheesy anime cartoon. Well, for a little while, until they ran out of new episodes to watch.

The problem was, Michelangelo had a woefully short attention span and he had no qualms with viewing the same thing over and over and over again. Mikey's brain was kind of like a paper cup with a bunch of holes poked in it. Stuff went in, but it just leaked right back out. Raph was pretty sure that his baby brother's brain hadn't functioned properly from the day he had hatched.

Mikey's fondness for watching the same mindless shows repeatedly could drive Raph straight up a wall. He was fairly certain that his youngest brother's latest fixation with the cartoon he affectionately referred to as 'SRMFF' was even worse than their oldest brother's obsession with that stupid 'Space Heroes' show. For the longest time, Leonardo had watched that show religiously, to the point that he could quote most episodes verbatim. He had been so addicted to that crummy sci-fi show, he had actually tried to model himself after the show's main character, which wasn't a good thing. Much to Raph's frustration, even when they were up against an enemy, Leo liked to sometimes spout off some corny quote that was undoubtedly inspired by that dumb show.

There had been some real doozies…

"All right, mighty mutants! Let's do this!"

"Halt, villain!"

"That's right! We're the turtles of justice!"

"Gentlemen, I have a bold and daring plan. There's no time for hesitation. My orders must be carried out without question."

"All right, guys. Let's put old Mother Hubbard back in her cupboard."

No question about it. Leo was a hopeless dork; the exact opposite of cool. It was embarrassing.

Really, really embarrassing…

Raph rolled his eyes skyward, although he was not sure if he had done so because of Leo's lameness, Mikey's dim-witted antics, or the putrid cartoon blaring in the background. Maybe it was just a combination of everything.

Letting out another irritated grunt, the hotheaded turtle turned his focus back onto his baby brother.

The particular episode of 'Super Robo Mecha Force Five!' that Mikey was presently watching was by far and away one of the worst in the series, and that was saying a lot. Why Mikey had elected to watch this specific episode again was beyond Raphael's comprehension. The episode had been painful enough to watch the first time. It was one of the handful of episodes centered around the princess character on the show, which didn't really seem like a plotline that was up Mikey's alley. Raph had never really pegged his youngest brother as being the type to appreciate a chick episode. Mikey had always struck Raph as more of a dudes-with-guns, pro-violence type of guy.

On the other hand, this kind of teasing opportunity didn't just fall into one's lap every day. It definitely gave Raph something to harass Mikey about. And he loved to harass Mikey.

Maybe things are starting to look up...

"So, Mikey… Leo tells me that after you're done watching this, you're planning on playing that 'Pretty Pretty Princess' board game you like so much." The quip was immediately followed by a trademark smirk, revealing that Raphael was quite proud of himself.

Then, Leo went and ruined the moment.

"Sounds to me like Raph is looking for someone to play his favorite game with, Mikey." As Leonardo made his extraordinarily snarky comment, he didn't even bother to look up from behind the martial arts magazine he had his beak stuck in.

Raphael glared at the cover of the magazine, trying to burn holes right through it with his eyes so his pompous older brother would see the murderous scowl meant for him.

Clearly not interested in getting into it with his most quarrelsome sibling, Leo didn't acknowledge Raph any further, pretending to be engrossed in whatever article he had stopped on. In all actuality, it was just another one of those highly inaccurate editorials on the 'mysterious' disappearance of martial arts superstar, Chris Bradford.

The sound of verbal shots being fired managed to tear Mikey's concentration away from the hypnotic glare of the television set. Wrapping one arm around his middle, the youngest turtle turned and extended his other arm towards Raphael, tauntingly pointing a forefinger in his already cranky brother's direction. "Ha! Haaaaa! Good one, Leo!"

Needless to say, this only served to further tick off a certain red-masked turtle.

"How about we play a little game of 'Does Mikey Bend That Way' instead?" For added emphasis, Raph emitted a low growl while cracking his neck several times in an obvious intimidation tactic. This instantly made the youngest sibling snivel and shrink in fear.

It wasn't until Leonardo heard his baby brother whimper that the oldest turtle finally showed an interest in the conversation. Expression becoming smug, Leo casually flung his magazine onto the couch that encircled the recessed area in the heart of the lair. Half a second later, his calm yet darkly foreboding sapphire gaze was zeroed in on his hotheaded brother. A silent warning of sorts.

"Don't mind Raph, Mikey. He's still pouting about me waxing his shell in practice this morning."

Now that Raphael had Leo's full attention, he took the opportunity to cast another dirty look in his older brother's direction. The red-clad turtle then set his mouth into a sneer, jutting his bottom lip out into almost a point, the way he always did when he was brooding about something.

The only thing that Hamato Raphael hated more than losing, was losing to the 'almighty' Leonardo. But that's exactly what had happened.

The bitter taste of defeat was still lingering in his mouth.

Ugh! Could this day possibly get any worse?

Just thinking about his miserable luck made Raph shudder.

First, he had overslept and arrived several minutes late for their daily morning practice session. That had been the second time that week; a breach of etiquette punishable by fifty back flips after practice. Then, Master Splinter had paired him against Leonardo in a sparring match to which Raphael had gotten his shell handed to him by his older brother not once, but twice.

Twice!

And in front of his little brothers no less!

What was even worse, was that after his first loss to his older brother, Raph had resentfully gone on and on about how Leo had only won on account of a cheap shot. So, Master Splinter, being the fair and just parent that he was, had allowed Raphael another round to prove himself. Alas, the only thing the temperamental turtle had managed to prove was that he would have been much better off keeping his big mouth shut.

Leonardo had proceeded to take Raph down in five moves.

Five freakin' moves!

Raphael wasn't even sure what mortified him the most. Losing to Leo (twice), losing in five moves, the enthusiastic high threes that had followed both of his losses, the arrogant looks on all their faces when his tremendous ego got taken down a notch or six, or having his whole family watch on with unconcealed amusement as he completed his mandated series of back flips.

From there, Raph's mood had gone from bad to worse, and now, Leo's continued bragging over his back-to-back victories was pushing the already grumpy turtle's mood into the critically hazardous category.

Raphael was unsettlingly close to going nuclear on their shells.

It was at this point that the end credits of Mikey's show started to flash across the screen. Forgetting all about everything else that was going on around him, the youngest turtle eagerly scurried over to their vintage, top-loading VCR and ejected the VHS tape.

The old phrase 'Be Kind, Rewind' meant absolutely nothing to Michelangelo, much to the annoyance of his three older brothers. Whenever they actually wanted to watch something from their vast collection of VHS gems, such as 'Omega Force 3: The Revenge of Ultor Syn' or 'The Stuffed 2: Beast Within My Belly,' they almost always had to sit around and wait for the tape to rewind back to the beginning. And all because their baby brother was too lazy (or stupid, according to Raph) to do it.

As Mikey started to rummage through the dingy, white crate that housed their secondhand – or quite possibly third or fourth hand – assortment of VHS tapes, Raph felt his chest tighten with grief.

The lattice crate looked uncannily similar to the crate that Spike had been innocently standing on when Raph's second youngest brother, Donatello, had nearly killed the helpless pet turtle. Not to mention everyone else in the vicinity.

Another one of Donnie's experiments had gone horribly awry that fateful day and the so-called 'genius' of the family had just about blown up the lair yet again.

At the time of the incident, Raph had been angrily walking away from his two other brothers when, from inside of Donnie's laboratory, there had come a deluge of sparks and debris that had flown every which way. Poor Spike had nearly been hit in the crossfire of Donnie's latest failure. Luckily, Raph had lightning fast reflexes. He had grabbed onto Spike just before the crate the small turtle had been perched on was blown to bits.

Raphael remembered the incident all too well…

"Oh, hey there, little guy. Y – You okay, Spike? Y – You're all good. Old Raph won't let anything happen to ya."

"Wow! I did not see that one coming… heh. Everyone okay?"

"Are you crazy? No! We're not okay!"

"What happened here?"

"I'll tell you what happened, Master Splinter! Donnie almost blew us up… AGAIN! And worse! He almost blew up Spike!"

"Raph, dude. I'm really sorry. I – "

"Sorry doesn't cut it this time! Until the mad scientist gets his act together, I'm holding this for safekeeping."

"No, R – Raph. Be reasonable. Man, that's my last canister of mutagen."

Despite Donatello's earnest pleas, the red-banded turtle had waltzed off with the nearly full mutagen canister in his hands.

For some reason, Raph's idea of safekeeping the highly unstable substance that he had confiscated from his brainiac brother had been to store the mutagen container in his bedroom.

His bedroom of all places!

The very same room where Raph had carelessly left his beloved pet turtle, unsupervised. It was a decision that Raphael would regret for the rest of his life. That one rash decision had transformed Spike into a ferocious monster.

A monster that had nearly killed all four of the brothers…

Intentionally keeping his face void of emotion, Raph scrunched his intense, emerald eyes shut to keep anyone from seeing even a trace of his inner torment.

It had been three weeks since Spike's mutation and not a day had gone by that Raph hadn't thought about his former pet turtle.

The lair felt different now. It seemed so much emptier than before.

A part of Raph kept thinking – wishing – that Spike's mutation had just been a terrible nightmare. That he would simply wake up and see Spike sitting there again, staring up at him with those big, unprejudiced eyes of his. That things would just go back to the way they were.

But with each passing day, what little bit of hope remained in Raph's broken heart faded more and more. The bleak reality that Spike wasn't coming back was beginning to settle in his stomach like the heaviest of stones. And with each passing day, Raph's grief seemed to be manifesting itself into uncontainable rage. The more he thought about Spike, the more his rage grew, like a cancer, silently poisoning him.

At first, Raph had used the words of comfort his father had shared with him after he had lost Spike as a means of attempting to pacify his frayed nerves…

"Raphael… Do you know what I do when I miss my loved ones from the past?"

"No."

"I focus on the friends I am surrounded by in the present."

"Thanks, Master Splinter."

Unfortunately, after just a few days, those words could no longer bring Raphael comfort. A flame of resentment towards his brothers began to smolder inside of him. He couldn't explain it, nor could he understand it. He didn't know where the resentment was coming from. All he knew was that the more he missed Spike, the more hostility he felt towards his three brothers.

When Raph realized that his father's words of comfort were no longer serving a purpose, he had instead tried to draw upon the calming power of the mantra Master Splinter had once taught him to control his temper…

"Like a river over stone…"

Again, the mantra had only worked for so long to curb the hotheaded turtle's anger, or at least keep it at a somewhat manageable level. But eventually, repeating the words 'like a river over stone' inside his head just made him visualize himself throwing rocks at his brothers and/or drowning them in the lair's 'moat' or a nearby sewer pool.

If Raph had to wager a guess for his recent upsurge in anger, he would assume he was going through one of those five stages of grief… or however many stages there were. He couldn't remember. He could only remember that anger was one of those stages, and he was all over that one.

But it wasn't just anger Raphael was going through. It was something more. Something the red-masked turtle had never had to cope with before.

Raph missed Spike more than he could have ever imagined possible. So much so, that the temperamental turtle didn't have a clue how to deal with the flood of emotions rushing through him. After all, he wasn't exactly a sentimental turtle by nature.

What he did know was that he absolutely hated feeling this way.

Raph would have given anything to go back and change what had happened that awful day.

He would have given anything to get his best friend back.

Raph's relationship with Spike had always been much different than his relationship with his three brothers. He and his pet had shared a special connection right from the start. The tiny, box turtle was the one living being that Raphael had actually felt comfortable talking to whenever he needed to get something off his chest.

It wasn't that Raph didn't trust or care deeply for his brothers. It was just that he was supposed to be the brawny, bad-mannered, thick-skinned, hard-hearted warrior of the team. There was no way in shell he was about to start sharing his feelings with his brothers. He had a tough guy persona to uphold.

And so, Spike had become Raphael's sounding board, which was perfectly fine with the hotheaded turtle. He never had to worry about his pet making fun of him or accusing him of going soft. Plus, Spike was a much better listener than any of his brothers…

"Who does Leo think he is? So what if I got a temper? I'm still the best fighter we've got. In fact, if anything, my anger makes me a better fighter! You understand me, don't you, Spike? Chew on your leaf if you understand me… Yeah, I thought so."

Spike had always understood…

But now, he was gone; transformed into a ruthless, hideous beast whose inexorable appetite for destruction and violence far surpassed even Raph's own passion for demolition and carnage. It was as though the only characteristics that 'Slash' had taken from Raphael were his fighting abilities and his uncontrollable rage.

It didn't make sense. Why had 'Slash' turned into such a vengeful and hateful creature when Raphael had always handled him with the greatest of care?

Or had he?

Raphael thought back to the last thing that he had said to Spike just before his mutation…

"The others are just holding me back. We should be out there fighting crime. Tracking mutagen. But all they wanna do is play stupid games. You get it, don't you, Spike? Sometimes I wish I was on my own, doing things my way. I'm tired of this team."

Was it possible that Spike had transformed into a savage killing machine because of the bitter things that Raph had said about his brothers?

Could it be that his constant ranting was responsible for the monster that Spike had become?

As if to answer his own question, Raph's mind flashed back to a time not long after Spike's transformation, when 'Slash' had made several scathing comments about his brothers…

"I can't believe this is happening. This is amazing. Wait! What am I gonna tell the others?"

"Tell 'em you got a new partner. One who knows the true meaning of being a warrior."

"A new partner?"

"You and me. No joking around. No goofing off like your brothers. We'll be the ultimate ninja team."

"Well, that would be awesome."

"We'll crush our opponents. We'll fight evil together, nonstop."

"That's what I'm talking about! You totally get it! You always did!"

Had Raphael actually encouraged 'Slash' to eliminate his three siblings?

The thought alone sickened Raph to the point that he could have sworn his stomach acids were burning a gaping hole in the lining of his gut. Thankfully, the guilt searing his insides was short-lived, because his baby brother soon distracted him from feeling sorry for himself.

"Uh, hellohhh! Earth to Raph! Come in, please!" Came Mikey's exceedingly aggravating voice, snapping the temperamental turtle straight out of his funk and shifting him right back into angry mode. It never ceased to amaze Raph just how quickly his youngest sibling could cause his mood to change. It was as if Mikey had some sort of special remote control device hidden away in his belt or something.

When Raph opened his eyes, he immediately discovered that Mikey was hovering over him in what was an obvious intrusion of his personal space. To say that Mikey's close proximity was making the turtle in red extremely uncomfortable would have been putting it mildly. Mikey was so close, Raph could have easily counted the freckles on his baby brother's round cheeks. Of course, that also meant that Mikey was so close, Raph could have just as easily slapped the freckles off his baby brother's round cheeks, but the volatile turtle somehow refrained from doing so. Mostly, because he didn't have the patience to listen to the little goob whine right now.

"What?" Even after hearing the unmistakable bark in Raph's tone, Mikey still remained awkwardly near, so the older turtle temporarily released his hold on his comic book so he could splay his hand over his orange-masked brother's face and shove him backwards several inches.

Undaunted by the rather violent gesture, Mikey just plopped down onto the couch, kitty-corner from where Raph was still submersed in the beanbag chair. Without missing a beat, the youngest brother pulled his legs up onto the couch cushions and proceeded to cross his ankles in front of him. He then leaned forward and hovered his head over Raph's shoulder, continuing to invade his big brother's personal space. Mikey's knee was edging dangerously close to the back of Raphael's neck. One false move and the happy-go-lucky turtle would surely be pounded into dust, but he seemed to be oblivious to the precarious position he was in.

"Dude! You were totally zoned out just now! I asked you a question and you acted like you'd been zombified or something, bro!" The declaration was much louder than seemed necessary, considering Mikey's mouth was right next to Raphael's ear slit. As the youngest turtle waited for his brother to respond, his bright, blue eyes widened with a freshly brewed blend of curiosity and concern that Raphael couldn't actually see.

The red-clad turtle closed his eyes once again, but only for a moment this time. Just long enough to steel himself. He was debating on how to reply to Mikey. Telling his little brother the truth about why he had just tuned him out was most definitely out of the question. Mikey would do that "awww" thing that he always did when someone told him they were upset about something. Or, worse yet, he would try to hug him.

If Mikey pulled any of that touchy-feely junk right now, Raph was pretty sure he'd stab him in the jugular.

"Did it ever occur to you that I was ignoring you?" The lie came all too easily, as if it was second nature to Raph. He then lifted up the comic book that he had been so rudely sidetracked from and thumbed through the pages until he reached the one he had left off on.

It was obvious that Raphael was no longer interested in conversing with his brothers, but apparently, not obvious enough for the turtle in orange

"But why? What did I do?" Mikey whined in a higher pitched voice than usual while he innocently batted his eyes and lowered his face into what could only be described as the picture-perfect frown. Again, Raph couldn't actually see the expression on his younger brother's face, but he could envision it in his head. Whenever Mikey employed his higher pitched whiney voice (as opposed to his regular pitched whiney voice), there was always a particular expression that accompanied it. Raphael had seen that look thousands of times. It was another classic case of Mikey using mind manipulation. He was constantly painting on that pathetic frowny face to weasel out of trouble or try to make everyone feel sorry for him.

Not gonna work this time, little brother…

Raph was about to unleash another snide remark at Mikey's expense, when Leo reentered the conversation, unknowingly sparing the youngest turtle from getting his feelings hurt.

"You didn't do anything, Mikey. Raph's just in a bad mood."

The red-banded turtle had every intention of simply giving his big brother the cold shoulder treatment, but then, Leo just had to go and open his yap again.

"Well, worse than his typical bad mood, that is. Talk about a sore loser."

Just one look at the condescending smirk now stretched across his older brother's face caused the thin tether that kept Raph's self-control restrained to snap.

Enough was enough.

Raphael was a ticking time bomb about to go off.

"What's your problem, Fearless?" There was so much fury in Raph's voice, it made Mikey cower away from him and attempt to disappear behind one of the small throw pillows he had snatched up from the couch. The hotheaded turtle's sudden flare-up had also managed to reap Leonardo's undivided attention, yet again, but not in a good way.

The oldest brother furrowed his forehead and narrowed his eyes into nothing more than white slits. It was a sure sign that the leader in blue was not at all pleased with his unruly brother's behavior.

No doubt about it.

Things were about to get ugly…

To be continued…

Author's Note: Uh-oh… no good will come of this.

Okay, to all my fellow Donatello fans out there, I missed him in this chapter, too, but he'll finally get a chance to shine in the next installment. Plus, chapter 3 features one of the most significant moments in the whole story. It's time to bring on the angst!

Just so everyone knows up front, I will not be posting updates for this story every week like I did with 'Lost in the Fight'. Unlike 'LITF,' which was finished before I even started posting it, 'Slash's Revenge' is a work in progress, so I will need time to write new chapters in between updates. I will do my best to post at least one update a month, so long as writer's block stays out of my path. *fingers crossed* If all goes as planned, I will upload new chapters the first full week of the month.

Please take a moment to favorite, follow, like, reblog, review, and/or comment on this story if you are enjoying it and want to see more. I always love hearing from my readers and friends.

Thank you so much for reading!