Of Turtles and Lizards

Taking the Hit

Raphael saw the missile hurtling towards her and made a split second decision. "Mona, look out!" He shouted just before hurling himself at her, knocking her out of the way and taking the missile himself. It exploded on impact, the sheer force throwing him back into the wall.

"Raph!" was the last thing he heard before everything went dark.

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Leonardo met Casey topside and they began searching frantically for their brother/best bud. They'd only been at it for about ten minutes before Leo's phone rang. Raph! "Raphael, where are you?"

"Sorry to disappoint." A feminine voice floated from the other end of the line along with the sound of Krang fire.

The eldest turtle's eyes narrowed fractionally. "You."

"Oh, told you about me, has he? I'm surprised. He didn't seem the type."

"You don't know a thing about his type." Leonardo snarled.

"Look, I love trading words as much as the next girl, but your brother's hurt."

"What?" Trying and failing to keep the worry from his voice.

"Come to the old abandoned lab on the corner of tenth and Baker. I'll hold them off as long as I can."

Click. And with that she was gone.

"Who was that?" Casey asked, having heard the entire conversation.

"A mutant that Raphael met the other day. She's playing with him and he wants to know why. We have yet to learn whether her intentions are friendly or not. Right now, she's definitely climbing up my unfriendly list."

The human gave the turtle a sideways glance as they ran. "Why?"

"First of all she's manipulating my little brother, not to mention trying to worm her way into his heart, which if she ends up betraying him would probably scar him forever. Second, she just called telling me that he's hurt, yet she obviously isn't, which makes another red flag go up. Third and foremost, I just don't trust her."

The two teenagers: one turtle, one human, reached their destination and burst through the double doors into the lab. Leo's deep blue eyes scanned the room before falling almost immediately on his injured brother. Raph was down, and completely knocked out from the looks of things, he was covered in dark smudges of dirt and soot, his plastron was cover scrapes, dents and small cracks. The blue-masked turtle ran to Raphael's side and felt for a pulse. He let out a sigh of relief when he felt the strong pulse beneath his fingers, yet frowned at his brother's vulnerable condition. We need to get him out of here. Leonardo concluded, staring down at the emerald green turtle with worry. And we're going to have to make it fast.