On The Cusp
Chapter 2

Footsteps echoed off of the old, rounded walls of the secret entrance to the turtles’ lair. Casey had been through passageways just like this one countless times over the past several years, mapping out their winding lengths and dark, twisting routes so well he rarely needed directions anymore. The fact that the brothers and Splinter had managed to secure a new hideout after their childhood home had been found by Shredder and his ninjas was nothing short of a miracle. Donnie had worked endlessly after that horrible day to make sure that their current home would remain hidden indefinitely, and so far, his efforts were working like a charm. 

Dust and dirt fell from the ceiling as the rumble of the yellow line rushed past, making its way towards the base of the Manhattan bridge as Casey hopped over a stagnant puddle blocking the passage. After a few more turns he stepped down into a darkened offshoot and was quickly enveloped by shadow. He paused on top of a slab of thickened metal that had been bolted to the floor and tapped his foot impatiently. 

A full minute went by and Casey groaned and leaned his head back, reaching up and banging on the solid brick wall to his left. 

“Don, you know it’s me.... I’ve got donuts… You got cameras and sensors all up and down this tunnel so don’t tell me—”

Suddenly, a voice crackled in the dark, slightly warbled and electronic. 

“I just like to watch you squirm, Jones. I know Raph certainly does. Though really… we all love it.” 

Casey smirked and banged on the wall again only to have the thick bricks pull back from his fist suddenly with a whir from somewhere behind them, then the entire wall slid open letting a flood of light into the side passage. The doorway was huge for Casey’s human frame but he knew it was a bit tight for the turtles’, though this was only the back entrance to the lair. The main one was still under construction and once it was ready, they’d have easy access to more of the main tunnels that ran underneath Manhattan and it’s spiders’ web of subway and sewer access hatches. 

Yawning, he stepped into the light and made his way towards the familiar sounds of breakfast being made. The back entrance led into one of the lairs’ rounded storage rooms, though it had taken some work to clear out the heavy, rusted water treatment systems that had been abandoned long before the turtles moved in. 

He shifted the box he’d been holding to his left hand and with his right, made a fist to hit the large red button Donnie had installed on the wall. The brick entrance behind him slid back into place and he continued forward as it was closing, heading towards the kitchen. 

“Ugh, finally dude! Seriously, what took you so long? My donut cravings have been, like, way worse than usual this morning!” 

Mikey’s voice carried loudly across the room towards Casey as he made his way over to the large kitchen area where the youngest turtle was busy preparing breakfast. The turtle was bouncing around already, his overly hyper personality in full swing this morning. Mikey was slightly shorter than Casey at just under six feet, but like Leo and Raph, the mutagen from his youth had blessed him with a dense musculature all over. He might have been the smallest of the four brothers but Casey knew he could easily hold his own in a fight, and he’d seen him do just that multiple times over the years. 

Right now though, Mikey was bouncing on his feet, moving back and forth between sets of ingredients as he made what looked to be omelettes and pancakes with a side of bacon and cinnamon toast. Casey didn’t know where the 20-year-old turtle had learned to cook so well but he was more than happy to let him work his magic over the food. For all of the annoyances Mikey brought with him sometimes, it was always worth enduring them in the morning simply because his breakfast was the best anyone could get on the Lower East Side, not that anyone but them knew about it. 

 “Good to see you too, Mikey.” Casey said with a chuckle as he laid the box down next to him on the counter and flipped the top open. The youngest turtle glanced at the box and managed to stop himself from multi-tasking long enough to give his friend a fist bump, complete with explosion, before he leaned over the box and started reaching for a donut.

Casey gave him a knowing look and Mikey put both his three-fingered hands up in front of him in a sign of mock innocence. 

“Do not, I repeat, do not take the old fashioned one. I don’t need Splinter getting angry at me because of you.” 

“Dude, that was one time. Plus like, he got angry at me too. S’not my fault he didn’t take it when he could’ve. You know my tummy needs feeding, especially in the morning.” Mikey made a show of rubbing his lower plastron, though with the dirty apron he was wearing, all he managed to rub was some excess flour across the faded cartoon depiction of himself cooking breakfast. April had ordered it for him last christmas using one of his own drawings, and now he wouldn’t ever cook without it. 

“Mhm yeah, Mike. Everyone knows about your tummy, believe me.” Casey laughed and shook his head as he leaned back against the counter, letting Mikey take a chocolate glazed and shove it in his mouth before returning back to his mad scientist cooking routine. 

Casey looked out beyond the kitchen at the rest of the lair and frowned. 

“Where’s everyone?”

“Fink Bonnie ish—”, he swallowed a bite, and then took another before continuing, “ihm hifs lath. Reo en Rahp ah wiff Spentah.” 

“Well,” he pushed off from the counter and started towards Donnie’s lab, “How long ‘til breakfast is ready?”

“Fheteen menues!” came Mikey’s garbled reply. 

Casey nodded and pushed off of the counter, cracking his neck as he walked towards the back of the lair where Donnie’s lab was. Mikey’s humming carried across the large room as he crossed the massive main space that served as their relaxation area. Two oversized couches that they’d found and modified to allow room for their bodies were at the center, surrounded by worn, old pillows, outdated video games, battered DVDs, and a slightly scuffed but still working TV standing haphazardly on an old entertainment center. 

He’d spent so much time here with the turtles and Splinter and April over the past few years since they’d first encountered each other. The turtles had all been younger then, but now, each of them had started to come into their own, especially after saving the city twice from Shredder and the Foot and the numerous other enemies they’d made along the way. 

For Mikey, it had spurred on a long list of hobbies that he’d been surprisingly adept at mastering extremely quickly. He’d taken on skateboarding, parkour, online comic art (he had a year-long series that was growing in popularity each day), cooking, and even helping Donnie with programming and circuitry around the lair. Everyone had been impressed with his sudden shift in seriousness when it came to learning and engaging in new things. 

They’d all known that Mikey was incredibly smart when he put his mind to something, but to see him excel in his work was a point of pride for all of them. Though of course, he was still prone to bouts of laziness and over-relaxation from time to time, but who could blame him? And he never seemed to outgrow his role as king prankster of the family, and through everything, Casey had always known him to be the one turtle who truly wore his heart on his sleeve at all times. 

Leo had fallen back into his old routines, assisting Splinter around the lair when necessary, and practicing and learning about ninjutsu every other waking moment. He still maintained a strong leadership role for the four of them, but other than their nightly reconnaissance missions and the odd criminal activity close to the lair, Leo had eased off the gas so to speak. He still trained them as hard as ever, but once they were finished, he slipped into his studies or allowed himself to relax and be a normal person for a while. He’d even tried some weed at Casey’s apartment once last year, and had Casey not been present at the time, he never would’ve believed it. 

Raph still Raph. As angry and moody as ever, though much less so it seemed, whenever Casey was around him. His best friend had gotten more and more into mechanics, taking apart his Turtlecycle more than once to install upgrades, or helping Casey and Donnie with repairs to the van. He seemed to like the silence and simplicity of working on an engine, and Casey couldn’t blame him. After going through what Raph had—what they all had—he thought that maybe it was exactly what the big turtle needed to help focus his energy on, and plus, it allowed them to hang out more often. 

Casey happened to be friends with a mechanic who owned a shop in Brooklyn, and he wasn’t opposed to letting Casey work on side projects every now and then late into the night after he’d closed. He and Raph had had some good times in that small shop, drinking beers, telling bad jokes (maybe a few good ones too), and generally just being at ease with each other. Those nights were few and far between, but Casey cherished them whenever he could. 

And as for Donnie, he had, of course, become more intensely focused on his study and development of human and Kraang technology, specifically the ooze that had mutated each of them all those years ago. The Kraang obviously had plans for the mixture they’d tried to release on an unsuspecting NYC back in 2016, but now, finding and acquiring vials of the stuff had been the hardest part of their nightly runs. The Foot were hiding Kraang tech more securely than most offshore banks would be accustomed to, and in the nearly four years since they’d first encountered the mutagen in the hands of the Kraang and the Foot, the turtles and Casey had only ever had two confirmed sightings of it in the vicinity of Lower Manhattan.

Despite Donnie’s best efforts at tracking the Foot’s movements, all they knew was that shipments of Kraang tech were still coming into the city on a monthly basis, but none ever seemed to leave. The Foot seemed to be moving shipments instantaneously around the city and covering their tracks better and faster than the five of them could find them. It was infuriating and Donnie especially was taking it out on himself more and more, seeing their failure as his own. 

Casey walked slowly through the large arched opening in the back of the main brick wall, turning as he stepped into Donnie’s lab. Three quarters of the large room were filled top to bottom with old or disused tech, each organized meticulously in bins with words written in black sharpie on them. ‘Bulbs’, ‘Burnt Out Circuits’, ‘Soldering Equipment’ and many, many more labeled bins went by as Casey made his way past the towers of assorted items, heading for the far corner. 

The back of the room was where Donnie did his experiments, or at least the ones that would fit inside. There was a vast chemistry set in one corner where he’d been experimenting with what little amounts of the Ooze he had left from several years ago. Next to that was the “ER” as Mikey called it, where Donnie would patch them up if they ever got injured in fights or battles, though lately it hadn’t been used other than for treating bruises or cuts from training. And further back was Donnie’s workstation which looked more like a CIA supercomputer to Casey. 

He walked up to the raised platform area where Donnie was sitting in front of a wide array of screens. Each one fed rapidly updating streams of information on any number of things to Donnie; police blotter updates, traffic information, crime stats for the entire city, and even a program that ran an algorithm over YouTube videos of Foot crimes for the past several years as it looked for patterns and clues in their activity. 

Casey whistled low as he stepped up to the platform and leaned back again the short metal railing around its edge. 

“Don, how can you even understand any of this when it’s all happening at the same time?” 

The tall, thin turtle snorted and put his three-fingered hands together in front of him as he stretched, “Casey, I hate to break it to you but I’m kind of a genius.” 

He yawned and gripped the edge of his custom-made seat as he stretched out his legs next, cracking the stiff joints from an early morning of heavy surveillance. 

“I’m not just seeing information. I’m constantly adjusting our tactics, thinking about new security measures for the lair, building new programs to help us track our enemies.” He adjusted his thick rimmed glasses and turned slowly in his chair towards Casey, “My mind works better under stress, so I find that feeding it information constantly forces me to keep alert and always think first before anything else. Might seem like noise to you but to me, it’s like music.”

Casey nodded his head slowly, “Uh-huh. And uh, you don’t get tired of the constant overkill?”

“Well, of course I do. But that’s why I like having you around. You allow me to see what it feels like to be an idiot, whenever I need to. That generally gives me enough energy to keep going.” 

“Thanks, Don.” 

“You’re welcome, Case.”

Both of them chuckled and Casey stepped forward with his hand held out. Donnie grabbed it and leaned into Casey’s weight, allowing himself to be pulled up by the shorter human. He looked down at his friend and then back up to the screens as they blinked away with new data and images. 

“I’ll figure out how the Kraang is doing this even if it kills me.” 

Casey cocked his head at one of the screens, “You think one of these programs will figure it out?” 

“It’s possible. I may be the smartest turtle around, but AI is quicker than anything else. But I dunno… I’ve got a feeling something big is on its way. And I know we need to be prepared for it.” He signed and reached up to adjust some of the gadgetry on his ever expanding harness of gear he wore. 

“I know we’ll figure it out sooner than later. Just hope we’re able to anticipate the unexpected when that happens. The Kraang and the Foot aren’t gonna sit on their laurels forever, and when they get back up, it’ll be because they’ve got something planned.”

Casey nodded and frowned at the tall turtle. He’d known Donnie to fixate on problems before but this, this was something much bigger than he was used to. Casey looked up at Donnie then back at the screens as he cleared his throat. 

“Got any leads? We’re going out tonight again and I could really go for some Foot soldier beatdowns.” 

Donnie snorted and shrugged, “We’ll head to Hell’s Kitchen for a few hours. Scout around and check for radio chatter, though I doubt the Foot even use radios. They’ve probably got Kraang communicators or something. I guess… hm. Maybe I’ll bring a Kraang signal sequencer again. Haven’t used it in a while but,” he threw his hands up and shook his head, “What the hell, I guess.” 

Nodding, Casey stepped down off the platform, “Sounds like a plan. And like you said, we’ll find something eventually. It’s been over three years since they tried anything major. We’ll be ready.” 

He took a few steps over to the far wall to look at some of the old posters and pictures Donnie had hung there. Movies, TV shows, and a few group photos of all of them together. In the lair, on rooftops. The good old days. His eyes lingered on April’s smiling face for a few moments. 

“You heard from her lately?”

Casey glanced over at Donnie as he asked the question. It’d been over a year since they’d broken up, or rather, since Casey had broken up with her. It wasn’t mutual and he didn’t have the heart to tell her why at the time. He still didn’t, but… 

“A few times a month, here or there. She says France is horrible and smells like shit.” Donnie snickered and looked at Casey. “Hasn’t mentioned anything but she does ask about you. Still sounds angry but I think she’s getting over it. Slowly but surely.” 

“Mm.” Casey said absentmindedly as he looked at that old photograph. So much had changed and yet, almost nothing had. She’d left soon after they’d taken that picture, only a week after they’d broken up. Gone to Europe for a chance-of-a-lifetime interview with some billionaire tech baron. And now, she was galavanting around with him from city to city no doubt. 

“You okay, Case?” 

“Hm? Oh, yeah I’m good, dude.” Casey said as he turned around and shook off the past. 

“Uh, Raph mentioned that you were doing some experiments or something? Said you might need my help again?” 

Donnie nodded with a frown, “Yeah, but that can wait until after breakfast. Well, er, I’ll talk to you about it then, but the actual experiment won’t be ready until tomorrow, depending on a few factors.” 

“Oh. Alright well, as long as it’s not that fucking mind reader headgear you put on me—”

“Casey, I told you a thousand times, it was a brainwave output measuring system, not a mind read—” He held up his hands and looked like he was getting overly annoyed at the smaller human for a moment, “Look. It’s not that. I promise. Like I said, I’ll explain later.”

Casey stared at him for a moment before shaking his head and shrugging off Donnie’s weirdly annoying ticks. He’d spent enough time with the genius to know when not to pester him more than he could handle. Hitching a thumb over his shoulder towards the exit, he spoke up again, “Mikey’s got breakfast almost ready.” 

Donnie seemed to shake off his mildly annoyed demeanor. “Figured as much. What’s he making?” 

The turtle got up and started walking towards the kitchen together, slowly making their way around the rows of old tech with Casey trailing slightly behind the towering brother. “You mean to tell me you’ve got surveillance shit all over the city and you can’t see what your own brother is making for breakfast? What gives, genius?” 

Donnie held up his hands, “Hey, sometimes I like to be surprised, you jerk!” 

“Mmhmm. You do know that you could also, like, just use your sense of smell to figure out what’s cooking right?” Casey said with a few sniffs of his own. 

“Har-har, Jones. I’ll have you know that all of our noses are way more sensitive and powerful than your puny human one.” Donnie gave Casey a small push with his arm, “And for your information, I’ve held back on complaining more than once at how bad you smell. Just something to think about.” 

Casey pushed back at Donnie, barely moving the larger turtle at all, “Pfft, like you don’t love the way I smell, nerd.” 

“I really don’t.” 

“Riiiiight.”

“Seriously.” 

“Sure, man.” Casey said as they exited Donnie’s lab together. He gave Donnie one last fruitless shove before he crossed behind him and headed towards the dojo, “I’m gonna let Raph ‘n Leo know it’s breakfast time. 

“M’kay.” Donnie said over his shoulder as he headed into the kitchen where Mikey was already setting their large table with old chipped plates and utensils. 

The dojo was attached to the opposite end of the lair from Donnie’s lab, and offered a much more secluded and quiet space for training than anywhere else in their underground home, other than Splinter’s own room. Casey made his way over to the far end of the main area and stood in front of two closed sliding Japanese doors, listening to the sounds beyond the thin paper frame.. 

Sharp breaths, hard hits of skin against fabric, heavy footfalls against padded ground. This continued for several minutes as Casey waited patiently for their round to end. 

Raph and Leo must've been getting tired after going for so long. He knew Splinter liked to run them hard, not because he was cruel, but because he knew their mutated bodies could easily take the stress. Still though, Casey also assumed that they’d probably been up since the wee hours of the morning and it was getting a bit later than they normally went for training. 

The hits continued as Casey waited. Most days, Splinter left the training up to Leo as team leader, but every once in a while, he would assume his official role as their master and test them each more severely. Though by the sounds coming from the room beyond the doors, it was Leo and Raph who were being tested more than Mikey and Donnie. 

“Yame!” 

Casey knew Splinter’s commanding voice that instantly caused the sounds of grappling and fighting to cease. 

“Casey Jones, you may enter.” 

Smiling to himself at Splinter’s almost god-like intuition, Casey slid both doors open and walked forward towards the center of the room. In front of him were Raph and Leo, both of them were breathing hard, their hulking forms sweating from exertion as they kneeled in front of Splinter’s small form. They’d padded their arms and elbows and knees, and had wrapped thick fabric around their fists to soften their blows. Normally Splinter had them using their individual weapons, but it seemed that today’s training was much more hands-on. 

“Thank you for waiting, Casey,” said Splinter in a soft but firm voice from beyond his two sons at the end of the room. “We are finished for today, my sons. You have both done very well with your progress, especially you Raphael. I believe Leonardo’s sessions with you are having a positive effect.”

Raphael bowed his head, “Hai, sensei. Thanks for… suggestin’ it in the first place. Been goin’ really well. Better’n I thought it would honestly.” 

He glanced over at Leo for a moment before bowing his head again in silence. 

Splinter stroked his long muzzle and murmured in approval, “Please go and enjoy the meal your brother has made. I will be in my study if anyone needs me.” 

“You’re not eating with us, Father?” Leonardo pulled his head out of his bow and asked, “Are you—”

“I am fine, Leonardo. Do not worry.” He moved forward slowly and placed a comforting hand on Leo’s shoulder, “I’m simply an old rat whose stomach is becoming more and more disagreeable with his mind. There are… things I need to meditate on at the moment. I’ll have Michaelangelo bring me something after you’ve all finished.” 

Leo frowned but nodded slowly, “Alright, but please, if you need anything…”

“I will call for you if I do, my son. Now please, go and enjoy your meal.” 

Leo’s face softened as he stood up alongside Raph, both of them bowing one last time towards their master before removing their wrappings and pads. They turned around to face Casey and made their way across the patchwork of thick rugs that made up the floor of the dojo. 

“Hey Casey. Glad you made it!” Leo smiled. It had taken a while for the leader of the group to formally accept him as an ally, but after a few outings on nighttime raids and April’s strong recommendation, Leo realized that Casey wasn’t like most other humans. Their weird little family had few friends in NYC and even fewer humans they could trust, but Casey had proven himself a thousand times over to be completely trustworthy. 

“Sup, Leo!” Casey replied as he fist bumped the turtle’s larger hand, looking up at the blue-masked mutant towering over him, “Mikey’s cookin’ up a storm as usual. I brought donuts. Oh—”

He leaned to his left around Leo and spoke up, “Master Splinter, I got you an old fashioned that I made Mikey promise not to eat!” 

Splinter turned from the entrance to his room and laughed softly, raising his hand, “Thank you very much, Casey. I’ll have him bring it to me later.” 

He turned slowly and walked back towards his chambers. Casey had never seen them but it felt like that was one part of the lair that was entirely off-limits to him, and for good reason: Splinter could snap him like a twig without a seconds thought and after seeing how ruthless he could be both in battle and when dealing with his sons, he wasn’t about to test the limits of the rat’s hospitality. 

“C’mere ya idiot,” came a low, growling rumble of a deep voice. 

“Wha—Raph!” 

Casey gasped as he was suddenly wrapped up in his best friend’s bulging, sweaty arms and lifted several feet off the floor. The air left his lungs and his spine creaked at the pressure as Raph flexed his strength, his slickened, leathery, scaly skin strikingly reminiscent of his dreams. His stomach fluttered for a moment and a thrill ran up his spine. Finally, he was put down on the floor again and Raph released the comparably tiny human from his bear hug. 

“Jesus dude, warn a guy first. Didn’t realize you’d be all touchy-feely today.” Casey said with a wide grin as he looked up at Raph. 

“Yeh well, I missed ya, alright?” The taller turtle grumbled as Leo chuckled at them both, shaking his head while he walked towards the kitchen. Raph hiked a thumb over his shoulder, “Dealin’ with Splinter Jr. over here ain’t all sunshine and rainbows every day, ya know. Mikey’s been with Donnie most of the time an’ I get bored easily after trainin’. 

Casey looked confused for a moment, and cocked an eyebrow at his friend, “Dude, you literally saw me last night. I didn’t get home until 3AM because I was hangin’ with you!”

He knocked a knuckle against the hard surface of Raph’s plastron, making a solid thunk. Raph stiffened and glanced down at him for a few seconds then shrugged, “Yeh, I know. Just like I said: I get bored easily s’all.”

He shrugged again, like something was wrong but he couldn’t quite move past the moment. Casey wasn’t entirely sure though. Raph was a bit of a wild card when it came to his own feelings. He had such a big heart but often let his anger get in the way of showing it. It was one of the reasons he and Raph had started hanging out in the first place; both of them could be more of themselves than they could around anyone else. Both had anger issues, though they knew it stemmed from different places. 

Casey had his life above ground to deal with and used his time with the turtles as a way to escape from it. But Raph… Raph was almost the opposite. Living underground all his life and being one of only four unique, totally inhuman brothers was a hard life. Casey couldn’t imagine going through his teenage years like that. There was a lot of anger built up under the massive mutant’s shell.

But Casey had been best friends with the big turtle for years now, and he’d been making serious progress when it came to Raph’s soft side starting to peak out from his hard exterior, and it was exhilarating to see it. 

Exhilarating to the point where now he was dreaming about him almost every night. 

Casey looked down as he walked slowly beside Raph. Those same feelings were returning again. The one’s he’d woken up with. The ones that had been festering inside him like a wound for the past several years, growing larger and larger. Sooner or later, something would slip out. Maybe he wanted it to. 

He sighed and stopped at the edge of the couch in the middle of the lair, speaking softly so the others didn't hear, “Look, I’ll try to come around here more often. I ain’t… I don’t have much keeping me stuck over in Brooklyn. Day jobs have started to really dry up, and not many people are interested in taking hockey lessons from a 25-year-old who never went pro. Plus, my apartment is a shithole and I hate being there anyway because...”

Pausing for a second, he bit his lip and closed his eyes, “Ever since April left for Europe, things have been….”

Raph crossed his arms and looked down at Casey, his golden eyes glinting in the soft light, “Ya know our place is yer home, Case. Whenever ya need it, we’re here for ya. Just say the word.” 

“I know, Raph. I… thanks, man. Really.” He said softly, looking up at the big turtle, “Means a lot, having all of you looking out for me.” 

He smiled up at the big mutant and felt his heart tug at him a little, almost like it was trying to pull the moment into getting Casey to talk more about the build up of aching feelings he’d been desperately trying to ignore. This wasn't the time for that though. He wasn't sure if it would ever be the right time. Things were hard enough as it is with his normal life, let alone opening up to his best friend about--

Suddenly, giant arms wrapped around him again, only much more slowly this time. They were more gentle, more careful than before. Casey felt himself stiffen at the touch but then, he found himself opening up to the warm, supportive embrace. It wasn’t often that he was held like this, not for many years in fact, and feeling the hard plastron and warm, thickly corded muscles of Raph’s body protectively wrapped around him drew a long sigh of relief from his lungs. 

He reached his own arms around Raph’s waist and leaned into the warmth, closing his eyes and enjoying something he hadn’t realized he’d missed for so long. 

“Thanks, Raph.” 

“No problem, Case.” Raph whispered. 

This wasn't him. This wasn't either of them if he was honest. He and Raph weren't the type to hug openly, if at all. So why did he feel so comfortable? Why did Raph’s touch seem to calm his nerves? Why did Raph smell so weirdly...nice? Like a masculine flower or something. What the hell was going on? 

This is real, right? Not a dream like it always seems to be?

“You two idiots are gonna miss breakfast if you stand there hugging all day.” 

Casey snapped out of his reverie, pulling back from Raph’s embrace quickly. He looked up at the turtle and saw his face was slightly darker on his cheeks. 

Was he… blushing? 

Casey felt his own cheeks flush quickly and he turned towards the kitchen and started to walk away. But he stopped after a step and looked back at his friend, unable to help but give him an awkward smile. 

Raph’s eyes widened slightly when he saw Casey looking back at him and his cheeks went an even darker shade of green. He looked away quickly as he scratched the back of his neck and, with a grunt, he followed Casey into the kitchen. 

The two of them sat next to each other at the far end of the table, both angling away from one another awkwardly, causing Leo, Donnie, and Mikey to all look at them strangely. 

“Uhh… you guys good?” Mikey asked. 

“We’re fine!” Both of them said in more shrill tones than they meant, glancing back at each other for a second before looking away embarrassed at their own awkwardness. 

“Right, uh… okay dudes!” The youngest turtle shot a knowing glance at Leo and Donnie before he turned around and finished doling out food onto each of their plates full of big, fluffy pancakes and perfectly folded french omelettes topped with chives. 

Breakfast was, as always, a delicious affair. Something about sharing a meal together seemed to ease the tension between him and Raphael, though he knew it was still firmly in the back of his mind if he wasn't kept occupied. Luckily though, Mikey always went to extreme lengths when he felt any of his brothers were having trouble. Maybe it was something about being the youngest but he really was the most emotionally intuitive turtle of the group, able to flow from one state of thinking to the next easily, which made him great at reorienting any type of group dynamic. 

Before long, the five of them were laughing at his antics and throwing around inappropriate jokes like any other morning. Mikey seemed to beam at the laughter around him, and Casey felt like things were settling down between him and Raph already. 

He knew that eventually the dam would break and he would have to confront these… feelings he was having. He knew they were much different than any he'd felt before, and coming to terms with them meant he had to come to terms with things he'd never even considered about himself. 

But for now, he was hanging out with his friends. His family. And he felt closer to them than he had for any other people he'd ever known. 

----------

“Guys, I got a signal from… somewhere close by!”

Casey and the other three turtles quickly gathered around Donnie on a rooftop overlooking Hell’s Kitchen. The night was cloudy and cool, with that sort of weirdly muggy sense of grime that clung to almost everything in this part of NYC. As Casey approached, he could see Donnie looking at his wrist computer, flitting back and forth with it’s holographic display. 

“Not gonna be another wild goose chase, is it Don?” Raph grumbled as he lumbered up next to Casey, switching his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other as Donnie continued to work his magic. 

“I… I don’t think so. This signal is different from all the other ones we’ve tracked so far this month. It’s way, way stronger actually.” He frowned as the computer dinged, a red pulsing beacon lighting up on the small, floating map. 

“There. Four blocks up, three over.” He bit his green lip and manipulated the image, text popping up rapidly. “Looks like it’s some sort of shipping warehouse or wharf, just off the Hudson. And it looks like… it’s underground.” 

He looked over at Leo who frowned before he leaned over Donnie’s shoulder to take a look at the image.

“Ok… can we go in through the river? Any sort of entrance on that side?”

“Checking.”

“Uhh… well how will I get in?” Casey asked worriedly, glancing at Leo and Donnie as shifted on his feet. Donnie received another ping on his wrist as he reached into one of the many pouches on his belt with his free hand. 

“Ok, we can get in through a vent opening about 25 feet below the surface. It’s automatically controlled from the inside but there’s a relay I’ve locked onto and can open it manually.” Donnie fished out a weird looking device and handed it to Casey without looking. 

“What’s this?” Casey asked, taking the device in his hands and turning it over. 

“Rebreather. Like in Star Wars. Holds about five minutes of air, which should be more than enough. Just put it in your mouth and breathe in, it’ll do the rest.”

Casey nodded and then looked expectantly at the rest of them.

“Ok but like… how am I gonna swim down 25 feet in the middle of the Hudson? Won’t be able to see shit down there either.” 

Raph chuckled as he leaned a beefy arm on Casey’s much smaller shoulder, “Just hold onto my shell, dumbass. We can swim faster and see perfectly fine down there.”

“Oh. Uh, OK I guess.” Casey said, surprised at the simple answer. 

Donnie was already moving towards the river as he spoke, “Once we get inside, there should be an opening we can pass through into the main venting chamber. At least, it looks like there is. Kraang buildings are kinda weird on the inside but I think I’ve been inside enough of them to understand their layouts.”

Mikey grinned and followed Donnie closely, “Uh, yeah. We’ve been in like dozens of them by now. Alien architecture design has sucked in every single one of them.” 

Following the two of them, the brothers and Casey quickly made their way to the building's edge before launching off and rolling onto the roof of the next one. 

“Ok, here’s the plan.” Leo said as they ran across the rooftop, each of the hulking turtles quieter and swifter than Casey who struggled to keep up even at full pace, “We get inside, see what exactly it is that they’re housing, grab some samples while we plant some surveillance kit for Donnie, and then get out the same way. Is that clear?” 

Raph rolled his eyes, “So basically, the simplest plan in the world? Thanks team leader.” 

“Knock it off, Raph. This is a big chance for us. Don’t make light of it because you think it’s gonna be easy.” Leo said with the weighty tone that came with the responsibility of leading his brothers. “Focus and be ready for anything.” 

The five of them ran across the next roof which gave them a straight shot to the river. Sliding down a fire escape, they made their way to the water’s edge and silently slipped into the water one by one. Casey grumbled to himself about getting his newly washed clothes wet in the disgusting Hudson waters, but knew there was no way around it. He was just happy he wasn’t wearing anything heavy. 

Raph was the last to slide into the water, his bulky body slicing through the surface like a bullet somehow, silent and smooth. Casey looked at the ripples for a moment before Raph’s head popped up again, his eyes entirely white as his secondary eyelids slid over to protect them under the water. ‘

“You look pretty creepy like that.” Casey said as he pulled out the rebreather. “Creepy, but kinda cool.” 

“I can live with that. Jump in and grab onto my shell, dude.” Raph turned in the water and waited. 

Casey took Donnie’s rebreather out and stuck it in his mouth, the device turning on instantly and filling his lungs with a blast of fresh air. He lept into the water and was shocked at how cold it was. He took a sharp breath and the rebreather whirred as it forced air into his lungs while he sunk down into the murky depth. 

Reaching out, he blindly swept his hands down to force himself back up to the surface. His body was not a fan of the cold and he could feel it starting to seep into his fingers already. This had better be quick. 

He broke the surface and swam over to Raph, placing his hands along the hard rim of his thick shell. As he gripped it, Raph swung his body under the water and rocketed forward, pulling Casey along with him. Eyes closed, all he could hear was the swirling of the water around him and the slight buzz of the rebreather as he pulled himself against Raph’s shell, lifting his legs to allow Raph’s to kick fully and propel them even further. 

It only took a few more seconds and Casey could feel the pressure building against his eardrums as they sank lower and lower. Finally, he could feel Raph stop and as they floated, he turned his head to the side and pressed his cheek up against the hard, rippling shell to try and calm his nerves. Something about this entire thing felt strange to him, but he couldn’t quite get why. 

Suddenly, they were moving again and Casey could see lights flashing by even with his eyes closed. A few more seconds and Raph shot upwards several feet and then slowed, breaking through the surface with Casey still clinging to his back. 

Opening his eyes, Casey removed the rebreather and stowed it on his belt as he looked around and took in a big breath of surprise. The room they were in was enormous, with stacks of shimmering metal crates lining the far walls and a complicated system of conveyor belts moving various boxes to different parts of the room. It was dark, with only a few slowly pulsing blue lights overhead giving any sort of lumination, and to Casey it seemed like a majority of the processes that were going on were automated. 

Machines whirred and pulsed as they were fed boxes to carry to other sections, and several floating vehicles moved quickly to stack and pull other boxes in some predetermined order. 

Raph looked around for a moment and then moved to their left. He lifted both of them out of the water and onto a metal gangway as he followed his brothers further into the room. Casey slid off of his best friend’s shell and let his boot-clad feet hit the surface, happy to be standing up again and thankful his boots weren’t waterlogged. 

The five of them grouped together in a tight circle, hunkering low to the ground in a shadowed area of the warehouse. Donnie pulled out his computer and made a few sweeping gestures. 

“Ok, I think I’ve masked their internal security hub for this room. They really need to update their access codes.” He grinned and gestured to the rest of the room, “Ok, here’s the plan. Mikey and Leo, I need you two to place these Shellcams and signal boosters as high as you can in here. Use the rafters to get up against the ceiling and mount the cameras so I can have a clear view of the entire facility from all sides. And mount each booster next to the cameras. We’re pretty far down but that should be enough for me to get a good signal back at the lair.”

He handed two bundles to Leo and two to Mikey, who grabbed them and glanced over at Leo, “Man, why do Leo and I get the boring jobs?”

“Mikey, c’mon. Just shut up and let’s get this done.” Leo said as he pinched the top of his slight beak and shook his head, “I wanna be out of here in ten minutes.”

“Ugh, you’re no fun Leo. Can I at least race you to the top or something?” 

Leo arched a brow and grinned slightly as he nodded, “Fine. I’ll race you but I swear to god, if you make any noise or drop those cameras—”

“Jesus, calm down Leo. Stop worrying and let’s just goooo.” Mikey said with a quick flash of a smile and a wink at Leo. “... What do I get if I win?” 

“You know what you get, dude…” Leo whispered to Mikey who giggled as the two of them made their way silently along the side of the warehouse. Casey turned and looked back at Donnie who was shaking his head and staring at Raph. 

“Do they really have to be that out in the open with it?” Donnie asked as he rolled his eyes. 

Raph chuckled and shrugged, “Hey, I don’t mind us being more open.” 

Casey frowned at the turtle, “What do you mean?”

Raph looked at him and started to say something before catching himself and shaking his head and shifting uncomfortably on the spot.

“Nothin’, dude. Just… turtle stuff.” 

Casey’s frown deepened and he was about to ask further when Donnie cleared his throat and looked at both of them expectantly before proceeding. He gestured to the map of the warehouse floating above his wrist. 

“Alright, you guys are coming with me. From the layout of this place, there’s one specific section we need to hit and grab samples from. If I’m right, I think this is a kind of sorting facility the Kraang have been using to send off experiments to different locations around the world.”

He swiped up and indicated two pulsing red locations right next to each other, all the way across the large warehouse, “If we can find it, we might be able to get a decent amount of experimental mutagenic material to take with us. Then I can see exactly what the Kraang and the Foot are doing with it.” 

He shut off the computer and moved forward swiftly, pulling his view-goggles down over his eyes as he motioned for Raph and Casey to follow him. 

“Stick close to me and move as quietly as you can, Jones.” 

“Jesus, I’m not that loud—”

Donnie gave him a withering look and Casey backed down and mouthed sorry at the lanky turtle, Raph chuckling beside him. 

The three of them made their way further into the facility, Donnie using his goggles to detect and disengage every security measure that the Kraang has set. Casey glanced up towards the rafters and could just make out Mikey on one up, hanging upside down as he gracefully placed one of the cameras into its correct angle. Leo couldn’t be seen from their spot on the floor but Casey had no doubt that the oldest turtle was nearly finished by now. 

Donnie stopped suddenly in front of a long row of gleaming silver boxes, each with a holographic pad floating in front of their creases. It seemed to take the nerdy turtle a minute to work out the code but then, the lid of the box he was standing in front of suddenly lifted away, a slight hiss sounding from the opening and a wave of chilled fog flowed from the box. The three of them looked inside and found rows of various types of vials, all glowing with what they were hoping to find: mutagen. 

Donnie grinned as he lifted one vial filled with a purple-greenish mixture up and let his goggles analyze what they could. 

“Hm. Interesting. If this is…” he said to himself as he pulled out another vial and compared the two. “Oh wow. That’s… different. Unexpected.” 

Raph shifted uneasily next to him, “Don, we need to keep moving. Leo and Mikey are done and I don’t wanna stay here much longer.” 

Casey nodded in agreement and looked around, worried now that Raph seemed more on edge. Donnie glanced at them and flicked his head to his left and right, the boxes beside his opening up at the same time. 

“Grab whatever you can. Use these.” He handed both of them some small metal containers from his belt. “Should be able to fit four or five in each of those, which should be more than I need, but always good to have extra ooze.”

Casey grabbed the thin metal container in his hand and moved to the open box to Donnie’s left, looking inside and seeing a variety of differently colored liquids organized perfectly in standing rows. He reached out and grabbed five vials, slotting each of them next to each other in the thin container, then closed it securely.

He handed it to Donnie, who took it from his without looking as he continued to study a third vial from his box. 

“Fascinating. Unorthodox as hell but… still. Fascinating. Wonder what event prompted them to work on this.” 

Casey cleared his throat and whispered, “Uh, can we go now? This place is giving me the creeps.” 

“Probably just the Hudson dripping off you, bud.” Raph snickered as he handed Donnie his small container back. 

“Har har, asshole.” Casey said with a glare, “Not like I have a leathery skin and a shell and can just walk around in a loincloth all day like you do.”

“Hey, don’t knock it till you try it, dude.” 

Donnie shushed them and with a flick of his wrist, the boxes sealed back up again. He glanced upwards for a few moments and nodded.

“Ok, I’ve got a birdseye of the entire facility thanks to Leo and Mikey. Let’s get back to the outflow vent and get the hell outta here.” 

He stepped away from the box and then froze.

“Oh shit.” 

Suddenly, the lights in the facility shifted from a calming blue to a bright red, bathing the entire room in an eerie glow from above. Raph and Casey froze behind Donnie who quickly glanced towards the back of the facility where a low rumble was beginning to grow. 

“Shit shit shit shit…” Donnie scrambled for his computer and flashed through several screens at lightning speed while he started to move forward. “Let’s go, guys. They don’t know we’re here so far as I can tell but they know the vials are gone from the boxes.” 

Raph and Casey were hot on Donnie’s heels as they sped across the shadowy floor of the facility, booking it as quickly and as silently as they could. The rumble behind them only seemed to grow louder as they moved. Suddenly, a purple light bloomed across the room, close to where they’d been standing not 30 second before. Casey glanced over his shoulder and saw figures emerging from three separate, purple portals that hung freely in the air. 

“Uh, Donnie, we’ve got company!”

The three of them made their way onto the metal gangway they’d started on. Leo and Mikey were already back in the water, their white eyes reflecting the purple and red colors now bathing the rest of the room. 

“Just go! I’ll lock the vent access behind us once we’re outside. That should give us enough time to lose them.” 

Raph grunted as he watched Donnie slide into the water, turning to Casey and reaching out his three-fingered hand. Casey pulled the rebreather off his belt, slid the moulded end into his mouth, and grabbed Raph’s hand as they jumped into the freezing water once again. 

He gripped Raph’s shell and clung tightly to it as the turtle’s powerful muscles propelled them both rapidly outward from the facility.

Out of nowhere, a rush of pressure blasted out from directly behind them, their bodies tumbling end over end as the water’s sudden current forced them along with it. 

The two slammed into the hard concrete wall, pain shooting through Casey’s head as it was bashed against the rough surface over and over.

He grit his teeth and tried to fight against the deluge, legs unable to find purchase on the wall. 

The turtle below him was kicking hard. 

Another blast of pressure caused his ears to pop just as he was thrown to the opposite side of the vent’s shaft. 

Pain shot through his ribcage.

I never got to tell him.

His grip loosened on the shell beneath him. 

Then Raph was gone—and he was suddenly lost in the darkness.

Casey sputtered and blinked at the pain for a moment before the pressure returned and once again, he was thrown forward. Suddenly, he couldn’t breath. 

Somehow the rebreather had been knocked from his mouth and he flailed his hands around wildly in front of him, searching for the small device as best he could. The rush returned like an unstoppable wave and he was swept forward, still flailing helplessly in the murky water before his back slammed into what felt like a hard metal pole, involuntary gasping out and sucking in a gulp of the Hudson. He was blind, lungs begging for air, and not sure what was going on other than he was probably going to drown. 

Confusion on top of pain and an incredible need to breath drove him to swim upwards, but as he squinted through his eyelids, the dirty water stinging, he realized he wasn’t going to make it. 

Darkness clouded the edge of his vision as he gulped again, lungs on fire and heart beating out of his chest. Panic had set in and he was fighting against it as best he could. 

His body didn’t want to respond anymore. Nothing felt right. Everything hurt. He tried to focus on swimming to the surface but it was all dark now. Everything was black. Was he still…?

Raph? 

Where was Raph?

I never got to tell him....