What's wrong with being-

What's wrong with being-

What's wrong with being confident?

***

Raph's been woken up by his brothers- namely Mikey- in several hundred different ways over the years. Ranging from Donnie tapping his forehead, to Leo's impatient calls, to Mikey's nonsensical yelling or random pranks that usually end up with him covered in a liquid that he can't name at the time.

His brothers learned pretty quickly how he reacts to being startled awake, so he has no remorse when he wakes up to an unfamiliar voice and touch, and his first instinct is to take out the face.

His other hand reaches for the kunai under his pillow, but he quickly realizes that no such weapon or bedding is anywhere near him. He scrambles away from the presence, a startled animalistic hiss filling the air between them as he blinks away the last of sleep.

It finally clicks who got the receiving end of his fists, and some of the tension leaves his shoulders upon spotting the large rabbit on the ground, cupping his bleeding muzzle. 

It's not heavy, and his nose probably isn't broken, so it's a lot less than he deserves. Karl sits up, looking at his palm and then at Raph as though trying to comprehend his very reasonable response to an unfamiliar blur of grey hovering over him. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Me!?" Raph throws up his arms. "You snuck up on me while I was sleeping!"

"Doc Ferrall wants you for the first test." He defends through gritted teeth, getting to his feet and wiping some of the blood on his jumpsuit. "And he's not going to wait around for you to get your beauty sleep."

"And here I thought he wanted me rested," Raph scoffs as he crosses his arms. "Mad scientists can never make up their minds, can they?"

He suddenly realizes that something cool and firm is touching his warm skin, and he raises his arm to examine it before pointing at the culprit. "Um, what is that?"

"Ferrall wants you cuffed," Karl states importantly. "Now hold still while I put on the other."

"Nu-uh." He fingers the smooth metal cuff directly under his wrist, but it's perfectly sized to encase his arm, and he can't get it to budge. The other arm is free of it, but he can see the matching pair in the rabbit's other hand. "I did not agree to new jewelry, Buster."

Beady eyes narrow. "You don't have a choice in the matter."

"Oh, there's always a choice." He grins as he cracks his knuckles. "And I think you'll find this ninja a lot harder to handle when his blood's where it's supposed to be."

Karl stiffens. "Don't make this difficult."

"Too late for that."

Raph shoots forward, barreling into his chest and bringing him down. He shifts into a handstand as the large mutant falls, launching off the suit and flipping over him. He lands a few paces away, stepping further back as the mutant rolls onto his chest.

He brandishes the remote that he'd seen bulging in one of his pockets. "Hey, Karl! This wouldn't happen to be for my door, would it?"

"Don't you-!"

He taps one of the buttons and hears a soft click. Closing the distance between him and the door, he pulls it open. "Guess that answers that!"

He waits a second more and then dives through the doorway, pulling it closed behind him and listening to the clang on the other side. He cups the top of his mouth with one hand, "If you don't want to break your nose, you should probably stop running into doors, huh?"

Two slams are his answer and he smugly tosses the key as he steps back, catching it in his fist with a smirk as he turns to make his way out of the evil prison basement.

Then he sees the flood of masked goons that are blocking the stairway exit, all of their weapons aiming at the frozen turtle.

"Aw, sewer apples..."

***

Karl puts the other cuff on him, and they must be magnetized because they lock together and refuse to budge no matter how much he twists and struggles. They perfectly encompass his arms, so there's no chance of sliding them off, and he puts that particular battle on hold. He sets his attention back on tracking directions as he's moved blindfolded through the facility, probably not for the last time.

One stairway, a couple turns and hallways later, and then he's being shoved forward, a resounding click and dense thud echoing around him. 

The pressure on the cuffs releases and he can move his arms. He peels off the blindfold immediately, taking a look at his new surroundings. Raph isn't sure what he thought they meant when they said tests, but he doesn't expect to be locked in a large, bright room with a dense transparent wall between him and his captor.

He walks up to it, staring Ferrall dead in the eyes before abruptly slamming both fists into it as if to bring them down on his head. He jumps like the loser mad scientist he is, and Raph offers a shark-like grin. "What's up, Doc?"

Too easy.

Ferrall's indifference melts into a glare and Raph shifts his arms into an arch over his head, nodding to his cuffs. "This your idea?"

Still no response, just a scrutinizing glare, and Raph steps away from the wall. He examines the area with apparent disinterest before facing him again. "So what's the plan here? Giant hypnosis thing gonna pop up out of the roof? Chains with wrecking balls of doom? I've been in a doom maze before, Nutjob. One made by an even wackier scientist than you."

He pokes the glass the same way he would jab at his chest, and Ferrall steps to the side, pressing a button on a control panel. His voice comes from behind Raph, probably from a speaker hidden in the room. "This will be your training area. These tests depend solely on you and your cooperation, so I suggest you lose the snark and get your head in the game."

Raph quirks an eye ridge. "I'm a packaged deal. You want the mutant turtle; you get everything that comes with him."

"Disappointing." He takes his hand off and scribbles on his clipboard.

Raph's tired of dwelling in uncertainty and letting the dread in his chest grow any larger. He might as well get these tests over with, or at least figure out what the heck Nutjob wants from him. Anything is better than standing around waiting.

He bangs on the glass to remind him that he still has imprisoned company, and the scientist looks up in frustration, possibly not used to being interrupted. That's too bad for him, now, isn't it?

"So are we doing this or what?"

Nutjob's gaze never leaves Raph's as he very deliberately raises a hand, and then presses a button on the console next to him. 

The transparent wall blackens, leaving him unable to see through it anymore, and Raph steps back in surprise, crossing his arms in quick recovery. "You're hiding now? Some evil scientist you are. Scared of the big, bad turtle."

A beat of unnerving silence and then the entire room goes pitch-black. Every fiber of Raph's being is on high alert now, and he knows that any danger is going to be from behind, so he whirls around, stepping back so his shell is closer to the glass.

He swallows his nerves. "What's the big idea!?"

"Evade." The voice seems to echo through the dark, like it's coming from every direction at once.

Raph knows this is a show of power, and he refuses to let it phase him. "Evade what?"

A beam of red light slices the darkness, followed by several more, and Raph has his answers. The beams are thick, light trained in one space and consistency, and he knows lasers when he sees them. Without further warning, they shoot toward him. Me and my big mouth!

"I thought you weren't going to slice and dice me?!"

"You have brothers." The ominous voice monotones as Raph narrowly avoids losing an arm. "If this test is a failure, I'll have the data to avoid making the same error."

Raph doesn't know if the mad scientist is trying to get in his head or giving a warning, but he gets the gist.

He grits his teeth as he ducks to the side, using the light the beams provide to track where he's going and guess where they'll hit. They seem to be following one another, with some appearing diagonally in his path while he's running when he least expects it, but he's able to conga-line a few, swerving around others. This goes on for several minutes. 

He's relieved that they're far easier to dodge than Kraang fire, but there's nowhere to duck and take a breather. He's having too many close calls, and he knows he's going to tire eventually.

They try to surround him from all sides, so he ricochets off the wall, bringing both arms to his chest in a mid-air twirl and then rolling as he hits the ground, continuing on.

He has no idea how well Ferrall can see him or if he's actually expendable, but he needs to get Nutjob to pull something else from his bag of tortures because Raph does not want to go back to his brothers without a limb.

"Jeez, this is the test? Sensei Leonardo's put me through training worse than this!"

He can't help the slightly condensing tone that slips out with his brother's title. It's a habit by now, since he still can't fully believe it belongs to someone else, and he doesn't know if he'll ever be ready to accept this fact. He's pretty sure Leo understands, so it's not like it matters.

"And here Karl was trying to freak me out! Please! I could do this all day!"

He skids to an abrupt halt to stop the beam aimed straight for his thighs, jerking his body forward to land on his hands, and then somersaulting away from the two closing in. What was it Mikey had said once?

He takes a breath, not letting the pant come out in his voice. "Like a video game on easy!"

A high-pitch sort of whoosh and then a sharp pain spikes on his shoulder, giving him all the warning he needs to dodge three more whooshes. He darts forward as he yanks a barbed dart from his flesh, hissing under his breath as it spikes more pain to get out than it did going in.

It's tiny, barely the length of one of his fingers, but it still hurts.

This is so not what he meant!

He slams it into the wall so he doesn't risk stepping on it later on, grabbing at his shoulder to put on pressure, sticky moisture under his palm. There are soft pitches of a barb gun firing somewhere in the dark, and he's able to catch them with his carapace, momentarily losing his footing when the lasers get too close.

He scrambles to his feet, panting as he realizes that there's a ball of shadow nearby.

He spares a moment to squint at it before he takes off again, keeping the mystery device in his peripheral vision. It follows him, and then he spots a red glint on a silver surface. He hears the whoosh, a barb launching from the hovering bot. He darts away from the wall, the barb shooting past him and dissolving into nothing in a laser beam.

If they can do that to metal, he doesn't want to know what they'll do to shell and bone.

He glares in the direction of the darkened window, tearing his bitter gaze away as the bot resumes firing.

He's forced to release his shoulder for better balance. He knows he's not going to bleed out from the prick wound, so he has no issues with doing so to avoid becoming a roasted turtle. He's tripped when a dart manages to embed itself in his leg, and he drops to slide under a few slanted lights traveling in a line, jerking it out with a pained grunt.

He's so stabbing one of these into Nutjob when he gets the chance.

Raph pauses as he leans on his arms, drawing in precious air, plastron against the floor as he brings up a knee, ready to burst back to his feet. The lasers come back and he braces himself, crouching lower down to gain a burst of momentum-

They don't touch him. They pass right over, so close that he feels the heat over his bare skull, but they continue onward. He glimpses them scatter out of the line, still not traveling low enough to reach him. He allows this to sink in a moment longer as they adapt to the development, moving to train on the floor like the circular red dots used as popular cat toys.

He gives it a brief moment of consideration before he's sprinting across the room on all fours, taking advantage of the loophole in the system. Some beams of light circle the walls, but they never go low enough to make contact.

He allows a grin to snake onto his features, wondering if Ferrall is seething in his hiding place.

The darts don't have the same flaw, but he has plenty of mobility, so he adapts like a ninja should, and does his best to keep the lasers from slicing him while using them to eliminate some of the barb darts. All of the too-close-for-comfort barbs, he catches with his carapace. They don't penetrate, too thin and smooth-sailing, but they're going to be near impossible to get out.

A problem for when he's not actively getting fired at.

The bot seems to comprehend that he's hiding under the rays, and it shifts closer to the floor to get a better aim. He leaps forward and tackles it to the ground. It struggles under his weight, pausing its firing now that it can't properly aim, and out of the corner of his eyes, he watches the lasers race toward him. He rolls on his carapace and tosses the bot into the air.

It hovers unsteadily for a moment, attempting to regain its balance, but that's a moment too long, and Raph winces as a laser slashes through it, almost knocking one of the sparking pieces on his head.

"That... Wasn't... So hard." He pants as he gets back on all fours, ignoring the dizzying pounds of his heart, how his limbs tremble, and the way blood drips down his shin. "Here, I thought... Was go-onna get... A challenge."

The lasers disappear and he tenses in the pitch-black, listening for the slightest hint of what else is coming. He flinches when he's blinded by a flood of light, bowing his head towards the floor to take refuge in his faint shadow and blinking rapidly to give his eyes time to adjust. There's a slam of a door opening, and his head shoots up in time to see a blur of gray barreling toward him.

He scrambles to his feet and Karl swings, catching his chin with a spiked-brass knuckle. It claws at the skin and he staggers back as the pain explodes in an array of tiny dots of light across his vision. He's barely able to dodge another blow to the jaw and a hand encloses around his arm, jerking him back to the ground.

He feels his head collide and his gasp for air is little more than a strangled wheeze, a hand pressing down on his throat as Karl's fist collides repeatedly with his upper plastron. His surroundings ring- or maybe that's his brain?- as pain overloads him to the point that he can barely swallow the pathetic plea for mercy that begs for escape.

He can't tear his gaze away from the malice in the beady eyes, because it almost looks like- like he's-

He's enjoying this.

Raph's always prided himself on being in villains' heads, of knowing how they think- but it doesn't make sense that anyone would get pleasure from- this.

The force and brutality knock him off-kilter, and he can barely do more than keep control of his weakness, willing his paralyzed body to move.

He feels his fists clench and his eyes narrow, new adrenaline flooding his being. In a fluid motion, he brings his legs to his chest and then kicks out, knocking his assailant a few paces back. He rolls his body forward and swings, only for the rabbit to block the punch before it reaches his skull, throwing him against the wall.

An arm presses against his shoulder and his neck, preventing him from regaining his lost breath, and then his assailant turns his attention to the shoulder of the offending fist.

Spikes break skin, and brass knuckle knocks the bone from its place.

Raph's not a total idiot. He knows that it's supposed to hurt, and he's ready for the feeling of spikes slashing through flesh, but he doesn't expect the explosion of hot, searing fire to shoot from his shoulder and through the rest of his body.

Maybe that's why a not-entirely human shriek bursts out as his world distorts into a horrific blur of gray and PAIN.

He's dropped carelessly, crumpling to the floor and breathing heavily as prickling tremors of agony travel from his shoulder and down his shell. He dimly remembers the pinched look on Leo's face when he and Mikey returned after their first battle with the Foot cultists, and wonders how his older brother managed to hide the utter agony.

His chin is locked between a thumb and finger, body yanked upright as blood from his scratched cheek stains the fur. He ignores the way his eyes water, grimacing when he's forced to face the cruel sneer of his captor.

Karl looks him over as if admiring his work. "Ferrall doesn't like it when his projects disobey."

A familiar flame lights, stronger than the pain or the icy terror. "H-he said t-o evade! I-I evaded!"

"You destroyed." His face is roughly jerked to the pieces of the bot and then back to the cold glare. "Ferrall didn't tell you to do that, did he? And when Ferrall is unhappy, I get to discipline."

Raph's tossed back, and his carapace thumps against the wall. His connected hand instinctively flies out to keep him upright, swallowing a whimper when the movement jostles his limp arm. The pressure on his chest is swelling with the unfairity of it all, a comeback on the tip of his tongue because how was he supposed kno- Stop, stop, it hurts- it hurts- river over stone- river ov- needs to shut up- needs to st-

"Maybe Nutjob needs to be more specific!"

"Ferrall!"

A hand closes around his throat to draw him up and slam him into the wall. He cries out with the new blast of stabbing heat, a trembling hand coming up to grab hold of the wrist of the impossibly strong grip, legs kicking out as his body hopelessly tries to escape the cause of pain.

Karl keeps him in the vulnerable position, watching him struggle before leaning closer and growling, "His name is Ferrall."

The intimidation tactic is working because his heart is pounding as sweat makes his hands slick, knowing that if Karl squeezes any tighter there's nothing Raph can do to stop him from strangling him-

Raph's fingers dig into fur as he stubbornly, desperately tries to get his point across- that he doesn't deserve to die because Ferrall wouldn't give actual instructions, only managing a wheezy, "N-neever said-"

"You only follow orders. Nothing else." His free hand locks over the limp arm and Raph's eyes widen in alarm, terror taming his voice. "Or next time, I won't be so generous."

Karl sets the arm.

This time he expects the same or an even worse level of pain, but after a blast that fogs his mind and tilts the room, the pain lessens. He gasps in air as his surroundings swim in and out of focus, and it occurs to him that the room is tilted because he's on the ground.

Raph blindly clutches at his shoulder as if to hold the bone in place, staring at the leering shadow of his designated bully as it falls across the floor. Terror squeezes at his heart and draws a soft whimper that he instantly hates himself for. He concentrates on breathing through the pain and doesn't dare look up, for fear of running his mouth and triggering another beating. 

He doesn't know why he couldn't just shut up.

It wasn't fair, but why should he be surprised? Since when was anything ever fair?

His silent submission seems to do the trick and he's left alone. The shadow even shifts and travels in the other direction. It leaves his sight, and he doesn't bother following it, beyond grateful that the brutality is over. 

Unwanted thoughts and conclusions trickle in, and he controls them about as well as he controls his anger and his mouth. This was only supposed to be the first test, that's what Karl said. There'll be more. More tests, more beatings- they're just getting started.

Raph has a sinking feeling that this time, his brash confidence isn't going to get him out of it unscathed. Heck, it's probably what'll convince them to stop testing and start dissecting. 

The guys might be lucky to find him in one piece-

NO.

The grip on his arm relaxes without his consent as breathing comes a little easier. N-no, no, he- he can't think that way. That's letting them win.

An-and he's been through worse, right?

Right. Sure.

His eyes flicker shut; his only reality becoming a hazy, fuzzy sensation that muffles the pain.

He'll get through this. He just has to hold on.

Leo'd never leave him hanging. Not any of them. Not his brothers.

Not-

Not here.

Raph'll hold on, buy them more time.

Just a little more ti...