Chapter Six

I opened my door to an empty, dark apartment. I flicked on the light and headed to my room.

I had just shut my door when Casey knocked on the window behind me. I opened it and dropped my bag below the window seat and sat on my bed. "Alright Jones, let's hear it."

Casey was bruised and bleeding from small scratches, but he had a huge grin on his face. "So I beat up the Purple Dragons, and then I was roughin' them up a little so they got the point, but then this turtle ninja thing showed up."

"Ninja turtle thing?" I asked skeptically.

"Yeah - another mutant monster." Casey nodded. "He was insane. He let the Purple Dragons go free."

"Are you serious?"

"And then he tried to stab me right in the face, but then, I got him with my taser." Casey held up a metal thing crackling with blue electricity.

"Ren, are you in here?" A knock came from Ren's bedroom door. "I want to talk to you." It was his mom.

"Catch you later," Casey slipped out the window and down the fire escape.

###
(Three days later...)

I was sitting with Casey on his apartment fire escape. We were supposed to be doing homework, but Casey was doodling in his journal.

There was some commotion on the building across the street.

"Look!" Casey almost yelled, but kept his voice to a whisper.

I followed his pointing finger to a humanoid turtle thing crossing his arms on the balcony of the building's roof.

"Oh my God..." I whispered. It was real.

"Come on," Casey grabbed his hockey bag. "I'm not done with this thing."

"Wait, Casey," I tried to stop him, but he disappeared off the fire escape.

I sighed. There was only one thing to do: go with him.

I followed him across the street and we flattened ourselves against the front wall.

"Who's got anger issues? I don't have anger issues. Maybe they have anger issues..." A voice was speaking angrily to itself. Metal scrapes over concrete as the manhole cover to a sewer closed behind the turtle.

"Come on," Casey waited a few seconds and then descended the sewer ladder. I followed him, turning on my phone flashlight.

The angry mumbling was echoing thoroughly the round sewer tunnel. We followed it, our feet splashing in the median of water in the floor.

We ended up on subway tracks, and we crouched below some turnstiles. The turtle entered what must've been his home; an old subway station.

"You guys watch so much TV your brains are gonna rot." The red masked turtle announced as he walked in.

"Yay, Raph's back." A voice muttered sarcastically.

"There's four of 'em?" Casey peered around the corner. I peeked up and saw four turtles sitting in a depressed part of the floor, watching an old show my dad used to like, Super Robo Mecha Force Go or something. The four turtles were all wearing different colored bandanas - red, purple, blue, and orange. They were the ones from the lost phone.

"Cool off yet, man?" the blue one asked.

"I'm always cool. Move over." The red one sat down in the corner.

Casey tried to move closer, but his hockey stick caught on an empty box of pizza.

I lunged out and snatched the box, but a fork on top clattered noisily on the concrete.

"Well, crap," I looked over to see the turtles staring at us.

"Intruders!" The purple one exclaimed.

"Oh man," Casey groaned.

"You? Again?" The red one shouted. "And a new one?"

Casey started running, but the purple and orange clad turtles restrained him. I calmly put up my hands and let the blue one clasp my hands behind my back in his huge green ones.

"You know this guy, Raph?" The orange one asked over Casey's struggles to escape.

"Get your stinkin paws off me!" Casey grunted.

The red one pulled off Casey's hockey mask. Casey growled at them threateningly.

"He's just a kid!" The blue one said, looking over my short shoulder easily.

"Let go of me you stupid reptile!" Casey bellowed.

I remained silent, watching the turtles with interest.

A redheaded girl ran over to us. It was the O'Neil girl who was tutoring Casey in Trig. "Casey?" she cried, "Ren?"

"You know these guys?" Everyone asked at once.

"Don't hurt them! They're my friends." She pushed the turtles away, letting Casey and I back up. "Guys, what are you doing here?"

"A better question is: how do you know these freaks?" Casey pointed accusingly at the turtles.

"These are the, um, other friends I told you about." She answered.

"When did this happen?" I asked, rubbing my hands.

They, of course, ignored me.

"So they're not the bad guys?" Casey asked.

"This vigilante stuff might be a little to complicated for you to compute, Case." I muttered.

"No way," she sighed. "Casey Jones, Ren Larson, meet, Leonardo," she indicated the blue one, "Donatello," the purple turtle nodded at us quizzically, "Michelangelo,"

The orange one struck a pose - "what up?" He grinned. The red one smacked him on the back of the head, like 'idiot.'

"And the one and only, Raphael." O'Neil glanced at the red one.

"So they're all... Italian?" I asked.

A new voice entered the conversation. "No. I named them after my favorite painters and sculptors of the Italian Renaissance." A huge rat approached us in a red Japanese robe, holding a Renaissance history book.

Casey shrieked and pointed at the huge rat. He fainted and fell back.

"Casey?" I questioned.

"Casey!" April kneeled and shook Casey. When that didn't work, she smacked him a few times.

"This Master Splinter, you two." She said, "he's cool."

"You do not have to fear me, my friends. Rest assured - I do not bite." Master Splinter nodded.

"He's a giant t-t-talking rat?" Casey stuttered.

Raphael laughed. "Big bad vigilante's afraid of rats!"

Michelangelo held out a small bug on his finger. Raphael shrieked and disappeared into his shell. He laughed, "Just like you and cockroaches, huh Raph?"

April suddenly clutched her temple and shut her eyes.

"What is it April?" Master Splinter looked at her, concerned.

"Sensei," she looked up. "We're not alone."

Beeping and robotic chatter came from the ceiling. I looked up to see a ton of glowing red eyes pulse. The eyes moved down, revealing the ninja-esque bodies of their owners.

The turtles all drew weapons: Leonardo with two swords, Raphael with his sais, Donatello spun a bo staff, and Michelangelo pulled out two pairs of nunchucks.

I gasped as the bug eyed ninjas extended two extra appendages with a drill and a spinning saw.

"Raph, you led the enemy right to our lair?" Leonardo shouted.

"It's the kids' fault!" Raphael shouted back. "They were following me!"

Casey pulled out a hockey stick. "Our fault?"

Michelangelo yelled another battle cry and ran up to the nearest one, taking it down with a swipe of the nunchucks.

Leonardo cut another into a few sections, and Donatello's Bo staff ejected a blade from one end, and he shoved it into a nearby ninja's stomach.

"So, they're robot ninjas?" I stood next to April helplessly.

My question was answered as Donatello was knocked back and caught by Master Splinter. The rat nailed the robot in the face with a punch, and the head came straight off in a burst of purple electricity and a spurt of oil.

April pulled out a fan with a sharp edge on the wider side and started slashing away like nobody's business.

I stood next to the TV, kinda pointlessly.

Casey and Raphael started arguing as Master Splinter took down, like, three of them with numerous punches and chops. It passed out on the floor, and everyone drew breath collectively.

"Stay alert: more are coming." Master Splinter said.

One of the robots stood on the outskirts of the battle, and the red light behind his eyes pulsed.

"Hey, he'll give away our location!" Donatello said, pointing to him.

Master Splinter dodged and countered more enemies. "Don't let that robot escape."

It turned and jumped over the turnstiles.

Casey ran after it. "Casey Jones is on it!"

Raphael slammed into him, wanting to chase the robot by himself. "Tell Casey Jones I don't need his help!"

They ran into the subway tunnels. I retreated into an adjacent garage/workshop thing with Donatello and Michelangelo while Leonardo, April, and Splinter stayed out in front.

A robot jumped on me, and I struggled against it. I shouted and Michelangelo nailed it with his nunchucks.

"Thanks," I gasped.

"Look out!" He pushed me aside and defended the next robot. I grabbed a large monkey wrench and smacked another one feverishly.

Michelangelo jumped on a rolling tool chest and kicked one away. The robot flew into a desk and a large beaker of purple liquid exploded in violent fumes.

"Stop messing around, you'll blow us to Philadelphia!" Donatello yelled.

"Sorry D!" Michelangelo apologized as his chucks blurred around him.

We continued fighting as the enemies numbers continued to shrink.

My arms tired as I swung my wrench around like a madman, and oil was streaked across my face from one of the last ones I destroyed.

Leonardo dissected what seemed to be the final two with his swords as I stabbed one in the temple with my wrench.

"Is that all of them?" He called to everyone.

A final robot leapt up behind him. Master Splinter swung a naginata blade into its chest and watched it fall. "Yes," he handed Leonardo the staff. "That is all."

"So, what happened to Raph and Casey?" April asked. As if on cue, Raphael's and Casey's voices could be heard from the subway tunnels.

"Dude, the way we chased that thing down?" Raph said.

"And what about when I shocked it with my stunner?" Casey laughed. "How cool was that?"

"And don't forget the subway chase, that was the awesomest part!" Raph flipped onto the railing.

"Aw, what's up?" Casey and Raph leaned on each other. "No more robots left for me and Raph?"

"Whoa, okay," Michelangelo raised an eyebrow... bone. "What's up with you two? you're like best friends forever now or something?"

Master Splinter approached them. Casey cringed. "I see you have found yourself a new ally, Raphael."

"Yeah," Raph said, "Casey's cool."

"Thank you for helping my family." He addressed me and Casey now.

"No problem, Mr. Rat." I grinned and massaged my shoulder.

"Wasn't a bad warm up." Casey agreed. "But now it's time to clean the scum off the streets." He and Raph smirked at each other.

"Lets do this!" Raph agreed.

They slammed their heads together and emitted a loud, guttural roar. I rolled my eyes. Yay... hockey?

"You know what this means?" Donatello's voice quivered. "We have TWO Raphaels!"

^*^
Sorry: this chapter was terrible xD But hopefully, now that he knows the turtles and everything, it'll start getting more fun. Comment if you have any suggestions of episodes/scenarios I should put Ren/everyone in!