"Took you long enough."
Raphael's words from the fire escape outside the bedroom window nearly knocked Casey Jones on his ass with surprise, spilling the books out of the bag on his back. The turtle chuckled, trying to keep his volume down in order not to draw any unwanted attention. He didn't know who else would be around, and the last thing he needed was Leonardo lording it over him that he got ambushed for being too lough. Not very ninja-like to get caught off guard due to laughing too loud.
"What the hell, man!?" Casey responded, opening the window then scooping the scattered books up. "You could have called."
Raph dropped down next to the young man, "You didn't give me your number, remember? Besides, the phone is just so impersonal, ya know?"
Casey's eyes narrowed at the turtle, "You serious?"
"No, I'm not friggin' serious," Raph flicked the human's forehead with a thick, green finger. "Now come on, I wasted enough time waitin' around for ya. We gotta go find the Dragons."
Motioning for the turtle to enter the apartment, Casey shook his head, "Not really the ideal time for that, man. I got a lot of homework. Besides, shouldn't you be with your brothers doing that? That's what you guys do right? Beat up the bad guys."
"Yea, we've been doing that," Raphael shrugged and flopped down on the bed, noting how much more comfortable it was than his. Then again, that made sense. The humans didn't need to dumpster dive for basically everything they owned. The perks of not being a giant, mutated reptile, he guessed. "Problem is we still have little-to-no idea what they're after, and who they're working for. Considerin' the last time we ran into you you said you'd do whatever to take them down, I figured you were the guy I needed."
The long sigh that escaped Casey Jones told Raphael this wasn't going to be as easy of an ask. It didn't make sense to Raph. When Don, Mike, and him had met the vigilante, Casey seemed as gungho as he was when it came to cracking skulls. Now there was something holding him back.
"Listen," Jones started, "I just got a lot goin' on...and things have changed with the Dragons. Hun, he's got a new boss. Whoever it is, they're a big deal. A deal I ain't got no shot of takin' down. Better to let that go. I don't need to end up dead."
Fear? That's what was in his head? Raphael couldn't deny that he was disappointed. Casey wasn't a superhuman like a lot of the people running around the city. He wasn't trained like Raph and his brothers. Yet he was still out in New York fighting the good fight. That alone was worthy of some measure of respect. But folding up when the going got tough was cowardly.
"Listen, you're my only lead," Rap came short of pleading. [color=ed1c24]"You don't have to fight with me. But you need to help me find out what they're up to, at the very least. You offered your help with the Dragons. At least give me that much."/color]
Jones grunted, "Great. Me running my big mouth again. Gettin' in over my head. Fine. Let me get my mask. I'll take you somewhere you can get some information. but then? I'm out. I'm not losing my head over this."
"So why aren't your brothers here?" Casey asked as they traversed the shadows of New York's alleys. He was wearing his mask now, and he couldn't deny that it felt good. With so much going on with school and the team, not to mention other, more personal matters, he hadn't really done much crime busting since before the holidays.
"Well, we got backstabbed by a girl ninja, and then she raised an ancient, evil ninja master from the dead," Raphael responded nonchalantly. "So my brother kinda forbidden outside help."
"Oh yea, sure, that makes sense. I mean, I'm talkin' to a giant, talkin' turtle, so rising from the dead totally makes sense," Casey shook his head. The world was getting weirder by the day, so there was no reason not to believe his new ally.
They came to the end of an ally and Casey motioned for the turtle to stay in the shadows, "See that bar over there?"
Across the street was an unremarkable dive bar named McNally's. The drapes were hung tightly behind dingy windows, not allowing anyone see inside. The light above the sign flickered intermittently. It was honestly so cliched it hurt Casey to look at.
"That's where Hun meets his lieutenants once a week," Jones explained. "There's an apartment they clear our above where they meet. But their security is terrible. We can listen in. Used to do it all the time."
They made their way up the fire escape of the building next to the bar, and then jumped to the target building. Raph silently opened the window, and stepped gingerly into the musty-smelling space. Old, unkempt apartments like this meant creaky floorboards, and he couldn't risk getting caught. He looked at Casey in the window, "Step exactly where I step."
Once they were in position, Casey moved the rug, and then pulled up a floorboard, revealing a small hole that looked down where the Purple Dragon leadership was meeting.
"I don't care if the only people we've lost so far is new blood, Hun," a Dragon with a Russian accent was saying. "At some point, if we keep the profile we've been keeping the past months, the freaks are gonna take one of us out. Or Tombstone will. You keep telling us our new partner is going to make sure we're taken care of. But so far it seems like you're the only one reaping the benefits."
Hun, the large, imposing leader of the Dragons, sighed, "Anton, I understand your frustration. New York has been a powder keg the past year. From the Spider-Man, to the Kingpin biting it, to the ninjas, and the freaks showing up, we've been caught in a damn whirlwind. But now, working for the new boss, I've ensured that we're going to be protected. That Tombstone or Kingpin or the Hand will never give us trouble again. And all we gotta do is run jobs now and again. Personally, I think that's a damn good trade."
"Hehe," another voice, deeper than the Hun's or the Russian's, "whateva you say, boss. I've been havin' fun crackin' more skulls. That bein' said, we'd like ta know who we're dealin' with. You can at least give us that."
"Agreed," a new voice said that sent a shiver down the spine of Raphael.
"Oh no."
"What?"
"I am the Shredder," the new voice announced to the Purple Dragon leadership. "And we, are The Foot."
The sound of traffic was faint here in the junkyard on the west side of town. All around Leonardo piles of the humans' old property lay like a graveyard of memories. He remembered when he and Donatello first found this place. It was a treasure trove of parts and furniture they had used to build the Den. Don was a whiz at utilizing and refurbishing old tech to do something incredible, and Leo and Splinter had spend many nights restoring old furniture to something beautiful. Raph got his favorite heavy bag here, and Mikey his prized skateboard.
It was also the place they had found their adoptive sister Alopex all those years ago, and it was she who had helped her new family set up shop here. Splinter didn't argue with her much. Leo never understood why Splinter had let her go with Old Hob so willingly, but he trusted his master's judgement. Plus, the old rat had always said he believed Alopex would come back to them, in the end.
"Hi! I'm Pete!" the squawk from above him on a pile of garbage caught him off guard.
He spun, looking up to find a squat, mutated pigeon looking down to him with a crooked smile. Its yellow and black eyes were pointed in opposite directions, and its tongue hung slightly out of its mouth. It wore a pair of ratty jean shorts. Pigeon Pete was one of Hob's "Mutanimal Liberation Army". In reality, it was little more than a small group of mutants trying to survive and stay hidden from the outside world. Pete was their lookout, for lack of a better term.
"Hey, Pete. How you doin, buddy?" Leo smiled, knowing that another "Hi! I'm Pete!", was on the way.
"Good!" Pete screeched.
"Whoa! New word, buddy! Thirty-three percent improvement!" Leo chuckled as he approached the Mutanimal's hut.
Before he could open the door, however, Alopex burst outside first, calling back, "Yea, I know you don't want them around, Hob. But you can't keep them out all the time. They are still my family, more or less."
His adoptive sister was an arctic fox, and stood a good foot taller than him. Her white fur was splotched with black around her eyes, almost like the turtles' masks. She wasn't as strong as any of them, but she was faster than them by a good bit.
"They're dangerous," the orange alley cat called back with a snarl from the doorway. His one eye, the other lost who-knows-when was covered by a patch, flared towards Leonardo with anger. "The more they play around in the human's world, the more likely they are to bring it down on us. And until we're ready, that means our death, and the death of all our kind."
"Yea, yea, whatever," she flipped him off as he slammed the door shut. She turned to Leo, "So...what's up?"
"Trouble in the commune?" he asked. Leonardo may have not been the most hurt at Al leaving, that would have been Raph, but he sure as hell wasn't happy about it. Especially when she ended up joining Hob's little band. Hob was unstable and dangerous, not to mention prone to violent outbursts. Al always said that she never felt fully a part of their family after joining it later in life, but coming here always felt like a desperation move to Leo.
"You know how he gets," she shrugged. "Seems to be a bit more paranoid lately. But the city...it's changing."
"Seriously, it's crazy," he nodded. "We've been up to our shells in gang members."
"That why you're here?" she asked. "The Dragons' new partner?"
"Wait," Leo was amazed, "you know who they are?"
She laughed, "Honestly, Leo, you need to pay more attention. Dragons happen to get more aggressive the same time that your Shredder comes back? It's not a coincidence."
"But if it was the Foot, why haven't they come forward yet? Why let the Dragons take the fight to Tombstone and the other gangsters of the city?"
"Who knows?" she shrugged. "Maybe they're not strong enough to come forward yet."
The thought made sense. If the Foot was a smaller organization during the Shredder's absence, it would be logical that they weren't ready to change the power balance of the city overnight. They'd have to be working to boost their numbers somehow before then. Meaning recruiting. Meaning another thing he and his brothers had to look out for.
He shook these thoughts from his head. It's not why he was here, "But honestly, I was here to ask if Raph had stopped by. He said he was gonna go to the movies...but he was definitely lying."
"Raph?" she laughed loudly. "Are you serious?"
It was a gamble to even think it, and Leonardo knew it. Raphael had taken Al's departure from the Den seriously. As far as Leo know, he had never forgiven her, though Raphael rarely ever talked about his feelings. Still, Raph often did headstrong things when he thought he was right and no one else was, so Leo figured maybe he'd come ask Al.
"Yea, it was a total stretch," he shook his head. "Just figured...do you hear that?"
Alopex's sensitive ears perked up, twitching to and fro like radar dishes attempting to find their quarry. Leo concentrated too, but had that broken by a loud, sharp screech from Pigeon Pete who fluttered off his perch and landed next to the turtle. He waddled on his stubby legs and dove through the shack's closest open window.
The sound was like the low rumble of a heavy truck going over a New York street that needed repaving. A constant growl with the occasional rattle of gravel or glass in the wheels. But this was louder, and the crashing of things was growing louder by the moment. Leo drew his swords just in time as the mound Pete had just been sitting on began to warp and shift. From inside burst a trio of gnashing pairs of metal teeth. As they soared towards him, Leonardo cut through them with his blades, removing the heads of two, and cutting the third straight down the middle.
"What the hell were those!?" Al yelled in surprise.
"I don't know," Leo shook his head but could hear more of them on their way. "But we can't stay here. Better go warn Hob and the others."
