Raph's POV

My brothers call me many things.
Hot-head, meat-head, short-tempered, the muscle of the team,…
And (I would never admit this to my brothers or Splinter) they're right.
That's my 'function' in the team: I'm the muscle, Leo's the leader, Donnie's the brain and Mikey is… well, he's just Mikey.

We need everyone on the team to be able to function.
Without Donnie's gadgets, we would get blown/beaten up.
Without Leo's leadership, we wouldn't get anything done.
Without Mikey's craziness, things would just be way to serious.
And without me being all tough and strong, we wouldn't get out alive.

But right now, I don't know how we are going to do this.
Because of me, the team is in trouble….

But let's start at the beginning, shall we?

It all started last week Monday…

It was a normal New York night: the sky was filled with gasses and the sound of angry people completed the picture.

We were on an evening patrol, when we were ambushed by the kraang (man, I really can't stand those guys!)
They attacked us from every possible side. I stayed close to Mikey, just in case.
I know he's able to defend himself whenever he's attacked. But I think it's my 'big brother instinct' that wants me to protect him anyway. I saw that Leo kept close to Donnie at the other side of the roof. Because I was looking for Leo and Donnie I didn't see the robot that tried to attack Mikey. I still yelled for him, but he didn't hear it…
The robot slammed Mikey on the back of the head. Mikey crumpled to the ground, but stayed conscious. When he turned around, he saw that the robot pointed his laser gun straight at him.
As did I.
I didn't think about what I was doing. The only thing in my mind was to keep my family safe. So I lunged at the robot. He looked up when he heard my screams. I jumped at him and tried to get him away from my little brother.
… I really should have thought about that. I kept pushing him and hitting him everywhere I could.
I saw too late that we had reached the edge of the (five floor) building.
I pushed the robot over,… but he pulled me down together with him. I still heard Mikey yell my name. I cringed. I knew that I was going to die, but I hated myself for having Mikey to see me fall to my death. Somewhere in the middle of the fall, the robot still tried to attack me. I was distracted and so he managed to shoot me in my arm. It hurt more than I thought it would. I kicked him as far away from me as possible.

When the impact came, it hurt a lot… but it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. The ground didn't feel like concrete, but more like… something a little softer. When I opened my eyes (I didn't think I would ever be able to do that again after that fall) I saw darkness and dark green bags…
Wait, dark green bags?

I tried to look around and then saw where I was: clearly I had fallen straight into a dumpster. I sighed. That had never felt so good!

I tried to sit up, but my arm hurt too much.

So I had to wait for my brothers to come and get me out… Man, I felt like a complete idiot!

Luckily I didn't have to wait very long.
Only a couple minutes after I had opened my eyes, I heard steps approaching the dumpster. I looked up and saw the very scared face of my purple brother Donnie. When he saw that I was alive and well, he relaxed a bit. He jumped in as well and helped me stand up. After that, he helped me out.

As soon as I was back with my both feet on the ground, Donnie put me down on the ground with my back against the wall. "You okay?", he asked concerned. I rolled my eyes: "Why does everyone ask that same question when the answer is so obvious?! I just fell from a five floor building! Of course I'm not okay!" "Okay, okay… sorry" he replied "what happened to your arm?"
I looked down at my left arm and looked away immediately. It was covered in blood, which was seeping out of a bullet size wound.
Before I knew what was happening, Donnie had taken of his mask and tied it around my arm to stop the bleeding. I tried to protest, but when Don's in doctor mode, there is no room for arguing.

When I heard steps on the fire escape above me I wanted to jump up, but Donnie held me down with a smile: "It's just the others".

And indeed, almost immediately after he had said that, Leo and Mikey jumped down and landed a little in front of us. I could hear Mikey sniffing a little. When he turned around and saw that I was fine, he ran at me and hugged me. Even though he almost choked me, it was cute. I hugged him back with my good arm.

When he was close to my ear, he whispered: "Thanks for saving me, bro!"
I hugged him harder when I replied: "Anytime, little bro… anytime…"

After this little 'brother-moment', Leo and Donnie helped me up and back to our lair.
There, Donnie and master Splinter took care of my wounds while Leo and Mikey just sat in the room pretending nothing had happened. I was extremely grateful for that.

Little did we know, that this was just the beginning of a whole series of problems…

Author's note: Hi everyone! If you're still reading this: thanks!
If this my first story that you read: welcome! :D
I think it was extremely predictable that Raph would be my next head-character, but anyway…

I know, little cliffhanger to start off, but I just like it
Have faith in me, I won't let it hang for long.

You know what to do: read and review!