Are You Sure I'm Not A Villain?

21

TW: fight sequences, violence, blood

Casey served up the spaghetti on mismatched plates and set them in their designated places at the bar stools.

"Marie!" his dad called. "Dinner!"

A patter of footsteps followed and Marie ran into Mr. Jones' outstretched arms. Mr. Jones lifted her into the air and placed her into her chair. Although she was only ten years old, she was remarkably short for her age and couldn't quite reach the bar stools.

Casey began to eat his spaghetti as he listened to his little sister's stories of elementary school. Casey wished he was still that young when he didn't have to worry about keeping the turtles' secrets or his own vigilante persona a secret. He wished the only thing he had to worry about was the kid with the 108 pack of crayons not wanting to share the multitude of pink shades while Casey himself only had the six pack because that was all his father could afford at the time.

"... and then Jack stuck his tongue out at me! Could you imagine something so rude? I was so mad that I went to tell the teacher and he had to move his clip from green to yellow! He's gonna have a letter sent home to his mom!"

"I'm... so proud of you," Mr. Jones said. Neither he or Casey had any idea how to respond to many of Marie's stories so they usually just praised her for her good deeds as any good family member would do.

Casey's phone suddenly sprang to life as he was bombarded with text messages from a certain group of mutant vigilantes. Casey groaned silently. He thought that he told them to leave him alone. Taking a bite of his garlic bread and ignoring Marie's chants of 'no phones at dinner, no phones at dinner', he checked to see why they would bother contacting him while it was just barely getting dark outside.

Leo: Casey we need you here stat

Raph: casey where are you!

Mikey: we're getting killed out here man!!!! 😱😱😱😵😵😵😫☠️

Don: How did you have time to put the emoticons?

Mikey: how did you have time for punctuation???????🤔🤔🧐🧐🧐

Leo: Casey we need you NOW

Caey stood up quickly, almost knocking his seat over. He didn't care how much he didn't like the turtles right then, they wouldn't be contacting him if they were really in trouble. Casey looked apologetically at his father. Mr. Jones was frozen with a forkful of spaghetti halfway to his mouth, mouth open as he waited for Casey.

"Dad, I'm sorry," Casey started. "I forgot I had this big homework thing for science an' –"

"You need to go?" Mr. Jones interrupted.

"I'm sorry," Casey repeated. "I know I was supposed to stay for dinner tonight, but I completely forgot."

"No, no," Mr. Jones said, waving his hand to ward off the excuses. "Homework comes first. I'm happy that you are taking the initiative with your grades."

Casey suddenly felt a heavy feeling of guilt for lying to his dad. He forced a smile anyways and took another bite of his garlic bread and ran to his bedroom, not really caring about the neighbors underneath them in the apartment below. He grabbed a backpack and stuffed all of his crime fighting gear in and ran out the front door, pausing only to stuff the rest of his garlic bread in his mouth.

Casey could see the sun just dipping under the horizon as he ran through the streets and shoved people out of the way, heading to the destination that the turtles had sent him shortly after the multitude of text messages.

He slipped his mask over his bandana but left it up so that he could still see where he was going. Contrary to popular belief, Casey's spray painted hockey mask was very hard to see out of when he was fighting.

But all everything that Casey had fought in the past, everything that he had experienced, could prepare him for what he saw when he arrived at the place.

***

"Guys?" Casey asked to the unwelcoming, empty alleyway. Casey double checked the coordinates on his phone. He was in the right place, but where were the turtles? Maybe the fight moved, Casey thought. But there was no semblance that any fight there had even occurred. And, knowing the turtles, they always left some sort of evidence that they were there.

Csey looked around the surrounding areas, just in case Donnie had accidentally typed in the wrong coordinates. He saw and heard nothing. Casey groaned with annoyance. This was probably some sort of prank or trap.

Casey: Ha ha you guys very funny

Casey: you guys can come out now

There was no response. This worried Casey more than it should have. If this was a prank, Mikey would have probably already come out (because.... You know, he's Mikey. Secrets are not a thing with this orange themed ninja). But nobody popped out from the sewer entrance or from behind the trash cans announcing that it was a prank yet.

Casey realized that this might actually be a trap as he heard footsteps surround him.

***

Casey looked up and immediately put his mask over his face. There were a dozen Foot soldiers surrounding him, sharp weapons drawn. Now, Casey was used to the usual Foot bots and their recognizable fighting style, but the soldier in front of him seemed to be a little different.

For one, the soldier was human. They wore black jeans with layered jackets covering most of their body except their hands. The hood was up on the jacket, covering the soldier's hair. They wore black, steel-toed boots that made them a few inches taller than they normally would be. Casey looked through the holes in his mask, trying to see the soldier's face, but a metal mask and black eyeshadow made it hard to see any defining features.

They held a sword in each hand, but what stunned Casey the most was the gun strapped to the soldier's leg. He had never met someone in the Foot Clan that used a gun before.

"Who are you?" Casey asked.

The soldier tilted his head to the side creepily. "We are your worst nightmare," he said.

Casey chortled. "Lay off the cheesy villain lines, dude. It don' make ya sound scary o' threatenin'."

"I don't think you quite understand," the soldier said. His voice was muffled through the metal mask, but Casey felt that there was something familiar about the voice. "We have your turtle friends. You and the girl are next."

Casey felt a shudder of fear rack through his body. The Shredder had the turtles? They were going after April too? Casey raised his hockey stick as the Foot slowly closed in around him, forming a fighting circle. Casey and the human soldier were in the center of the ring, facing each other.

"Where are ya keepin' them?" Casey asked.

"You'll see soon enough, Casey Jones," the soldier sneered.

The Foot soldier lunged at Casey. He raised his hockey stick just in time to block the blow of the sharp metal from slashing across his chest. He parried back with a blow to the soldier's head, knocking the soldier to the ground with a thud. The Foot bots started to move, but the human raised a hand, signaling for them not to move. Casey waited for the soldier to get back on his feet, a new look of malice placed in his eyes.

The soldier once again charged Casey, sparring and trading blows every few seconds. Soon, Casey was slowly getting tired from the blood loss. He wished that he had a sharp weapon instead of a stick. He stumbled to his knees, vision black and blurry. He watched as the human Foot soldier walked closer and knelt next to him. He took off Casey's mask and threw it to the ground.

Casey could do nothing to stop him.

The soldier drew back a fist. "Nighty, night, Jones," he said.

The soldier seemed to hesitate before planting the blow on Casey's face, knocking him to the ground and into unconsciousness.