Michelangelo crept softly down the hall to Raphael's room. He stood outside for almost two minutes, wondering whether or not he should really do this. Did he really want to know what lay beyond that door? Finally, Mikey threw caution to the wind and reached for the doorknob, looking both ways down the hall.

See, one thing Michelangelo did know was rule number one. When it came to his brothers and doing something he wasn't supposed to, rule number one was always: don't get caught.

With no further ado, Mikey entered Raph's room. It was dark, pitch black, in fact, as most of their rooms were without the lights on. Mikey reached over and flipped the switch. Whoa, Raph had done some redecorating since the last time he was here. The bed, really just a broken-down mattress, had been moved from the back wall to the side wall. And as Mikey turned to the back of the room, he saw why.

Dude...It's like something out of one of those detective films!

Yarn, strings, pictures, scraps of paper, notes written in a messy scrawl, and push-pins all surrounding or embedded in a huge map of the city. All the push-pins were connected to each other by color-coded pieces of string. Mikey frowned, his tongue sticking out a little, as he tried to decipher the code.

There were many different colors, but the most substantial were red, black and white. There was more black than anything else, but there were also many points where the red met the black. There was also something else that struck Michelangelo as strange. Each push-pin had a date tag attached to it. Since about two weeks ago, the red and white strings had been traveling side by side, and though each occasionally deviated, most of the time those two went together. It was odd. Mikey assumed that the red was Raph. The black was presumably the Foot and the white...the white threw him off. What the shell did the white mean?

His eyes narrowed as a cloud of suspicion hung over him. Something strange was going on. Mickey traced the white yarn back from last point on the map. Ever so slowly, he worked backwards, noting every instance when the two strings parted. Funny, when they did separate they usually went in opposite directions.

Moving even further back, to a point about two weeks ago, Mikey found the origin point of the white string. It was a narrow old alley in a bad part of town. Coincidentally, or perhaps it was not a coincidence, the white push-pin that the white string was tied around, had the red string looped around it as well. Something about this whole thing made Michelangelo uneasy. The idea that his brother had been working with someone he'd met on the street...left him not really knowing  what to think.

The orange-masked turtle glanced at the clock. Aw shell! It was almost time for dinner! If he got caught, or if one of his brothers started looking for him, he could end up in trouble. Mikey decided he wouldn't tell any of them about this. Not until he'd given Raphael a chance to explain himself. He left as silently as he had come, closing the door tightly behind him.
—————————

It was getting late and still no sign of Shredder. Raphael and Casey were able to easily locate Karai and her men and had been following the Foot for about an hour. So far they hadn't been spotted. If they were patient the little ants would lead them back to the nest and straight to their leader. Raph looked back over his shoulder to the human who stood slightly behind him. "How're you holding up?"

Casey groaned. "Well if they make us run much further, I'll be too fucking tired to fight." The human raised an eyebrow inquiringly, "Aren't you tired?"

"Mutant." Raph stated, curtly.

Jones apparently wanted more explanation than that because he grumbled something about mutants and their strange abilities.

Raph was chuckling quietly at his human friend's expression, when he realized that it had gotten quiet. Way too quiet. His eyes narrowed and he drew his sais. He could sense a change in the air waves. He looked down into the alley. Nothing. No movement, no cars, and most importantly, no Foot clan. Damn! They'd lost their only lead.

Raph's fists clenched. Then why do I still feel uneasy?

Suddenly the feeling became more centered. Raph's eyes flashed and he growled dangerously. "He's here."

Casey Jones shot up from his crouched position at the edge of the roof, turning his masked face to his mutant friend. "What? How can you tell?"

"I'm a ninja." Raph replied. Then, after a considerable pause, he added softly, "I can feel him."

Jones scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Sure."

Raph's eyes narrowed. "Sh."

Everything went silent. It was a chilling silence. Even Casey shuddered and began to have faith in Raphael's senses.

"Raphael." A deep, ominous voice growled.

The turtle turned back towards his companion. "It's him. Whatever you do, don't lose your head." Raph turned away from Casey and glanced around, warily.

The next thing he knew, the six-foot turtle felt someone jumping at him from behind, where Casey Jones had been standing. He whipped about and caught the blow before it landed, finding himself face to face with a dark armored figure.

Shredder's suit was different, less robotic, and more samurai-esque. He had claws that extended dangerously from his gauntlets about seven or eight inches. For some strange reason, despite the lack of tech and difference in size, Raphael found this form ultimately more imposing than the other one. This can-opener look felt more threatening. Raph was very ill at ease. He didn't fancy the idea of being made into turtle soup.

"Were you looking for me?"

"No shit." The hothead growled.

"I could still make good use of you." Shredder said, throwing himself at the turtle. Their weapons clashed with a mighty clang.

Raphael grunted as savage blows pounded his plastron. Shredder was not about to ease off. This battle was far from done. "Tell me, where are the other turtles? And the rat?"

Raphael growled.

Shredder slammed him up against a wall. "Where are they?!"

"I will never tell you." Raphael replied.

"Are you certain of that?" Shredder sneered, pressing his blades to Raph's throat.

Raphael's deep, throaty growl was equally menacing.

A yell re-alerted them both to Casey's presence. The human struck Shredder from behind, jumping up and swinging as hard as he could with his hockey stick. CRACK! The stick broke in two and Casey was left with only the handle. Shredder glared at the pitiful human vigilante.

Panic briefly surfaced in Raphael's mind as Shredder released him and went straight for Jones. Casey put up as good a fight as he was able, but Shredder was a ninja, not only that, but a ninja with many years of experience.

The human didn't stand a chance. Raphael jumped up and came to his friend's aid many times, taking the bulk of Shredder's fearsome blows. Finally, the turtle took one hit too many and as he tried to get up, he found that the world had begun to spin, so he lay back down and waited for his vision to clear. Out of the corner of his eye, Raph briefly registered a sharp, pointy figure rapidly approaching the human. Casey was on guard, but that wasn't going to be enough.

Raphael recognized that kata. His sensei used it all the time, and it always ended the sparring match in the old rat's favor. There was only one thing Raph could do. He tossed all regard for his livelihood aside and threw himself forward, shoving Casey to the side. Raphael used himself as a living shield, once again taking a blow for his human friend, getting himself pinned in the process.

Casey hit his head as he impacted with the ground and briefly lost consciousness. As a result, the human wasn't going to be of much help to the turtle.

Raph was too disoriented to escape from beneath Shredder's powerful pin. He attempted to stab Shredder with his sai, but Saki grabbed his oversized wrist and managed to worm the weapon out of his grasp. There was a flurry of movement and suddenly everything stopped.

The fog in Casey's head cleared just enough for him to realize what was going on, but his body would not respond to the commands of his mind. He still needed a moment to fully regain his senses.

The sai pressed down on the upper left scute of the Raph's plastron. Shredder's fiery gaze glared straight down at the turtle beneath him. Oroku Saki began applying force and Raph grit his teeth as the pressure neared the threshold. There was a soft crack, foreshadowing what Shredder was really capable of.

"Last chance. Tell me where they are." The leader of the Foot Clan commanded.

Raph lips drew back even further as he snarled, "Never."

"So be it." Shredder plunged the sai downward, cleaving into his plastron and creating a lightning-shaped crack. But that wasn't enough to satisfy Oroku Saki. He pressed the blade even deeper until it was buried practically to the hilt.

Raphael bit his tongue so hard he drew blood. He groaned and writhed, which probably only served to make the wound even worse, but he would not give Shredder the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Never.

He was so overwhelmed by the pain that he didn't even feel another of Shredder's blades carving a symbol into the skin on his shoulder.

Casey's vision cleared just in time for him to see Shredder ramming a sai into his friend. Something inside of him snapped and he was filled with rage. But even then, he knew the only way he would be able to help Raph was by lying low. He dropped back into the shadows in order to evade the couple of Foot soldiers that were following him, hating the fact that he couldn't go over there and beat the crud out of Shredder for doing that to Raphael.

Shredder stood and glanced around before he bent over and yanked the sai from Raphael's shoulder. A couple of Foot soldiers joined him and one of them asked, "What should we do with him, Master Shredder?"

"Leave him. His wound will bleed out soon enough. He's as good as dead." Shredder answered.

"But couldn't we use him to find the other turtles?" The other Foot soldier asked.

"It is no use. This one will not talk. Just let him die." Shredder ordered.

They both bowed. "As you command, Master Shredder."

"What about the human?" Shredder asked.

Raphael tried to better focus on what was being said. They were talking about Casey.

"He escaped, sir. We tried to stop him, but he evaded us. Do you wish us to go after him?"

Shredder growled thoughtfully, then shook his head. "No. The human is insignificant. Just get me the rest of the parts I require."

They bowed again. "Yes, as you command, sir."

———————————

By the time Raphael regained consciousness, the Foot were gone and Casey Jones was the only human in sight.

"Raph! Hey, Raph!" Casey said.

Raphael stared up at the human as best as he was able. His vision kept fluctuating between clarity and blurriness. "What took you so long, Jones?"

Casey frowned. "I had to make sure they were really gone. How're you doin?"

"I've lost a lot of blood, my vision is distorted, my ears are ringing, and my body feels like it was beaten to a pulp." Just as he finished with his complaints, his vision blurred and pain from his wound rippled through his entire body. Without realizing it, Raph reached out, one of his hands grabbing Casey's shirt tightly. He grit his teeth. "Shit," he muttered weakly.

Casey Jones put a hand on Raph's uninjured shoulder. He was concerned, very concerned. The rough, tough, teenage turtle had somehow become a very important friend to him. When Casey spoke, his voice was soft and gentle. "Hey, you make sure you survive this, okay?"

Raphael gave Casey a rather confused stare, then he smirked, and asked, jokingly, "What's in it for me?"

Casey grinned wanly back at his friend. "I'll give you one of my autographed baseballs."

There was a long moment of silence before Raph whispered, "You mean that?"

"Would I lie to you?"

"If you thought it would give me extra incentive to live? Probably."

Casey rolled his eyes and sighed. "You're impossible."

"I know." Raphael agreed as he began to weakly push himself up, avoiding the use of his right shoulder.

Unsurprisingly, Casey Jones was not too enthusiastic about letting him go anywhere. "Whoa, where the hell are you going? You're in no condition to—"

"We have to move, otherwise Shredder or his men could come back and find we're still alive." Raph stated. Once he was on his feet, he took a few staggering steps on his own before Casey stepped in and helped him.

Casey could already tell that there was no sense arguing with Raphael. The turtle was right, of course. They really did have to move and the sooner, the better. But that didn't mean he had to like it. The hockey player didn't mind getting a little blood on himself and his equipment. After all, Raphael had saved his life.

They were in the sewers about a mile from the lair. With Casey's help Raph had managed to get this far, but he knew he would have to send Casey home. His brothers and father, were going to have a difficult enough time coming to terms with what had happened, so Raph decided to continue keeping Casey a secret for now.

"Ey Case, stop here." He said.

"What's up?" Casey asked as he let go, curiously watching Raphael take a seat against the wall of the tunnel.

"I can take it from here." Raph replied evenly.

Casey bristled uncomfortably. "Man, you can barely walk by yourself, how the hell are you supposed to get back to wherever it is we're headed?"

Raphael didn't bother answering the question directly. Instead he muttered, "Get my phone out of my belt, will ya?" Jones did so and then Raph commanded, "Call Leo. He's number one speed dial."

"Who the hell is Leo?" Casey asked as he did what the turtle asked.

"My brother." Raph said, as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

Casey stared in shock for a few moments. Raph had brothers? Hell, mutant turtles could have brothers? Well, there really was no reason why they couldn't. But...why hadn't Raph mentioned them before? Casey wondered.

The dial tone rang in the background. Haltingly, Casey asked, "You sure you'll be okay?"

Raph smirked. "I'll be fine. You go on home and take care of those injuries!"

Casey Jones reluctantly left his friend sitting in the sewers, hoping with all his heart that Raph's words were the truth.