Hello!
So… did you keep your New Year’s Resolution?
So did I! I haven’t gotten angry with Raphael more than twice a day… a vast improvement over last year! ;)
In all seriousness, Raphael and I have been getting along better than ever. I have made an effort to not over-react to his behavior, and he has actually become much more rational in battle. He actually discussed tactics with me before we invaded Bonesteel’s hideout last month! If only he hadn’t gotten so viscious once we’d captured Bonesteel, it would have been a perfect operation… at least for Raph!
Ah! Perhaps you’re unaware of the story! Check out Venus’ page to get the beginning of this tale. Raph and I left to find Bonesteel in order to rescue Michaelangelo. We also wanted to get an antidote for whatever poison the bounty hunter had put into that trick barb that Splinter had been stuck by.
Obviously, Bonesteel wanted us to find Michaelangelo, as he had left Mikey with his Turtle Transmitter. The device gave us a signal to follow which led us to where Mikey was a prisoner in Bonehead’s base. Raph and I knew that there would be many traps (Bonesteel’s trademark), so we tried to come up with a plan to avoid them as best as possible. We searched the exterior for surveillance devices and found several easily… simple motion detectors. Rather than disarm these, we merely avoided them, thinking that they were more an alarm mechanism than anything else. A bit closer to the warehouse where ‘steel held Mikey we found several trip wires. We traced one and found that it set off nets with the poisoned barbs. We left those and searched the rest of the building. We found several cameras and used an old trick of ours… we put fake pigeons in front of all of them to block their view! After that, Raph and I decided that the trip wire traps would make a good diversion, so we fashioned a quick “dummy Turtle” out of a trash can lid and some garbage. Raph made his way to the front door of the place and I prepared to set-off the snare trap with the dummy. Once the dummy hit the trip wire, the nets fell onto it and picked it up into the night sky. This in turn set off some other security devices, which lit up the alley that I was in like it was noon! We hadn’t expected the lights to be so bright, even though we had seen them! I did my best “Turtle in a Trap” imitation from the ground. Bonesteel was actually waiting for us on the roof of a building next door, but the dummy fooled him long enough for me to sneak away from the now brilliantly lit alleyway and into the ground floor of the building ‘steel was on. I radioed Raph that Bonehead was next door. Raph managed to avoid several more traps inside the other warehouse and free Mikey from his cage. Mikey was still groggy from the poison, so Raph led him outside to safety and let him sit and rest.
By the time I got to the roof next door, Bonesteel was gone. I saw that he had a guide wire that ran from the roof that I was on back to the roof where Mikey had been imprisoned. I radioed Raph again and then crossed on the wire myself… a very dumb move! I should have known that Bonesteel would anticipate this… and he did! As I was half-way across, Bonesteel emerged and touched two cables to the wire, sending a tremendous volt of electricity thru the wire which sent sparks flying everywhere and shorted out the lights! Fortunately for me, I was quick-witted enough to let go of the wire as soon as I saw ‘steel, which saved me from being electocuted. It didn’t save me from the 30’ drop though…
I managed to roll fairly well when I hit the ground, considering that I couldn’t see anything. My eyes hadn’t adjusted yet from the drastic change in lighting. I consider myself lucky that I only broke one of my ankles in the fall… it could have been much, much worse! I definitely paid the price for acting without thinking… the very thing that I constantly admonish Raphael about! Anyways, I didn’t know that my ankle was broke at the time… it hurt, but not horribly bad. I rolled down the alley and kicked a door in with my good foot… making sure to roll away as I did this to save myself from any traps ‘steel may have set. Good thing I thought of that this time, because of course there was a trap! One of those barbed nets came shooting through the door at tremendous velocity… had I been in front of the doorway, I’d have been totally engulfed by it!
Once the trap went off, I got to my feet and hobbled into the warehouse. I could hear a struggle inside the building, a floor above me. By the time that I got to where the battle was being fought, it was over. The warehouse’s second floor was open and visible to the first, and there stood Raph, tying a rope to a hand rail. The rope was thrashing about madly and he was struggling with it, but once he was finished he clapped his hands free of dust and grinned. Bonesteel was tied to the other end of that rope, dangling high above the first floor! Raph had done a real number on him.
Raph looked at my ankle and decided that we’d better put a splint on it. We picked up Mikey, disarmed all remaining traps, and called the police to come pick up Bonesteel. From there we searched ‘steel’s bags and found several vials of chemicals. Raph knew which ones we needed… thanks to his interrogation of Bonehead. We grabbed the antidote and headed for home. Another day of adventure behind… and another lesson learned the hard way by yours truly! Raphael only smiled when I told him about the wire… I figured he’d want to rub it in, but he didn’t. “Live and learn, eh Leo?” was all he said… with a wink. I’m really starting to like Raphael. =)
So that’s the story this time around… I think the moral is pretty obvious now… too bad I had to break my ankle to figure it out! I’m off to do some physical therapy. I’ll talk to you again soon!
Leonardo
