The race was probably one of the best things the friends have had during the last few hours of this day. Everyone kept laughing at the loss Raph had gotten. Speaking of Raph, his body suctioned to the gooey dark brown earth. He got up to congratulate his Leo and his brothers with the quads.
They all backed up when Raphael came too close.
"Whoa, whoa." Leo smiled, both hands up and stepping back a few steps. "I don't wanna get that all over me."
"Oh, come on, bud!" Raph extends his arms out to ready himself for a hug but he made his little group run quickly down the trail. The race was on again and this time it wasn't going to end well. Leonardo leads his two other brothers and down the trail with the four animals. The leader of the mutant turtles took a turn on a different path that has never been taken before. Raphael lost everyone in the thick area of bushes and trees that mostly blocked out the sun. He lost them from getting distracted by the beautiful picture he is standing in.
The muddy turtle slowed down his breathing to see where he was at and to be careful of his surroundings. As Raph searched, he wipes the mud away from his face and body before it dried up to become a crusty plate of armor.
"Guys?" Raph blurted, looking behind himself and forward. "Where did you go?" Nothing but a dirt path, small rocks, crows screaming, thick trees everywhere. It was very weird because the trees claimed fresh green leaves like they had just sprouted. It's very pretty yet Raphael swore that these trees were burned when the fire hit days ago. "Leo?! Kri?" He backed up off the path, gulping and playing with his fingers in a nervous manner.
Raph jogged from the path, going deeper into the woods and getting farther away from where he chased his brothers and friends. He yelled for them and never received an answer. His instincts are all over the place, the bravery he had before is gone, he can't speak. Raph didn't realize that his adventure had taken him to a very special place. And by special... A dangerous kind.
The mutant wished he paid more attention to where he stepped and crept. He exclaimed in surprise when his body lifted from the ground, hugged by thick rope and moss. This trap he triggered swung side to side high off the ground.
Raph was not in the mood. "Oh, no..." He whispers barely able to move, he grabbed the net. "Donnie! Mikey! Help me!"
****
11:20 am...
Leonardo had stopped running minutes ago and noticed that one was missing from the eight beings. "Has anyone seen Raph?" He asked anyone that will answer.
"He was just behind us wasn't he?" Kri growls lightly.
"He was." Griz added, sitting on the path.
Crickets chirp, birds tweeted in the sky, flies buzz, no voice from a turtle is heard in the distance. It's unusual for Raphael to go missing instantly, most of the time he would keep up. Donnie and Mikey called out his name and got no answer.
Leonardo pushes through the animals and his brothers to trace his steps of where he could have lost Raph. He just doesn't understand how raft could be lost like that. "Raph, come on out! Where'd you go?"
Donnie and Mikey stuck close to the mighty wolf, loving bear, courageous tiger and active cheetah. All of them try to guess where Raph could have gone.
"Don," said Griz. "The...The trees are--"
"Growing new leaves." He finished for her, nodding at the different shades of beauty. "Maybe it has something to do with your guy's transformation."
The bear grunts. "Maybe."
As everyone immediately starts the search for Raph, Kri started to have the worst thoughts right now. What if they weren't able to find Raph and the animals will never become human again? What if they lost everything right there at that moment? "What if we won't find him before midnight, Leo?" She said.
"We will." Leo assured her. "Don't worry. He's gotta be around here somewhere."
Hawk swiveled her ears until she could catch a sound, she did just in time. And her point of view it was in the north-east direction. She howled to alert Leo and the others. The wolf bolted from the path to reach the call from her friend.
"STOP IT!!" Raph cried. "LEO, NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" He let out all of his emotions.
The leading wolf is confused at Raph's command. Why is he telling Leonardo to knock it off when he is not even there?
And that is when the wild dog got her answer. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw four animals in for mutant turtles attacking the dangling trap from the tree.
Hawk skids in her path, stunned. "Impossible..."
The four mutants, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo were duplicated. So were the quads. Hawk stared at herself trying to bring the net down. A second Raphael growled. A kind Donnie snarled at the real Hawk, the fake Griz, and Shado roar.
Hawk was lucky to have the other three animals and mutants to arrive on time. They too were in shock at the sight. The real Raphael whimpered in the trap as the fake eight friends turn their attention to the real group.
"Nizhoni has completely lost her mind..." Shado says as she made eye contact with her duplicate.
Duplicate wolf and duplicate tiger showed all signs of aggression. Duplicate Mikey and Leo reach for their weapons and get into a stance.
Mikey gulps at the sight. "I think we may be in over our heads..." He grabbed his own nunchucks from his belt and Leo grabbed his katanas out from behind his shell.
"How do we do this, Leo?" Hawk asked.
"Uh..."
Donnie extends his electrical bostaff with a single press of a button. He breathed in and out steadily to keep himself calm, avoiding a panic.
"Running River said to work together and we will beat Nizhoni." Leo says. He lunged forward a little to see if it'll phase any of the fake beings. Nothing happened except them standing their ground and yelled out a battle cry before running to the real mutants and animals.
"KRI!!" Raph reached out the net.