part two
``Ha! Told you I knew where they were hanging out,'' Michelangelo said, nudging his brother with an elbow.
``Shhh,'' Raphael hissed. ``Loudmouth. How are ya' even a ninja?''
Mikey snorted. ``You're one to talk. You're not that quiet either, you just wade in fists swinging.''
A corner of Raph's mouth lifted. ``It gets the job done, doesn't it?''
The pair were atop a building in a rundown part of the city. Peering through a skylight, they watched as a group of about twenty Purple Dragon gang members partied. Music was blaring, drinks flowing, and smoke from more than just cigarettes fogged up the air.
All around the room lay the stolen merchandise from break-ins at three different pawnshops. Though the turtles hadn't been in time to stop the robberies, when Mikey told Raph he knew where they'd gone afterwards, the older turtle had insisted he prove it.
Raph started to open one of the panels in the skylight, but Mikey caught his arm. ``Wait, I've got a better idea.''
``Better than giving a bunch of Purple Dragons the beat down they deserve?'' Raph asked. ``I can't wait to hear this.''
``I think we should scare them straight,'' Mikey said, eyes twinkling with mischief.
Raph cracked his knuckles. ``I was just about to do that.''
Mikey shook his head. ``Not that way. Let's try something new. A challenge.''
``A challenge, huh?'' Raph stared at him. ``Keep talking.''
If there was one word that would nearly always grab Raph's attention, that was it. Mikey leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially, ``We scare them without being seen. Make them think they're going crazy, or that the place is haunted, or that one of them is trying to keep the loot all to himself.''
Raph opened his mouth to shoot down the idea when he realized how much fun they could have. Mikey was watching his brother carefully and saw his facial expression change.
``Who wins the challenge?'' Raph asked.
``Automatic loss for getting caught,'' Mikey said. ``You rack up points based on getting a reaction from someone. One guy gets spooked, that's a point. You spook more than one with a prank, you get points for each of them.''
``Code of honor,'' Raph said. ``If the trick doesn't work, you can't count it.''
``Wouldn't dream of cheating,'' Mikey said. ``What would be fun about that?''
``You're on. I'll scare `em like they've never been scared before,'' Raph said.
Mikey waggled his eye ridges. ``No one out-pranks the Mikester. You are about to get schooled.''
To seal the challenge, the pair bumped fists and then Raph carefully opened the skylight. The hinges gave off a small squeak in protest, but the group below were making enough noise to cover the sound.
Dropping onto a support beam, the pair split up, going to opposites sides of the room. After cautiously surveying the area below them, they leaped down to the floor below and scrambled quickly into hiding places.
Both waited just long enough to be sure they hadn't been seen before moving again.
Raph's first target were some guys standing nearby. They were smoking and talking loudly to each other to be heard over the music. On the box next to them were their beer bottles, from which they periodically took a swig.
Easing forward, Raph snatched a nearly full bottle from the box and poured out almost all of its contents before setting the bottle down again, this time closer to someone other than its owner.
``That place had like zero security, man,'' Dragon one said, reaching for his bottle. He frowned and turned when his hand didn't immediately connect with it. When he located the bottle and realized it was almost empty, he glared at the guy next to him. ``You drank my beer, Jake! Watch what you're doing.''
``I didn't touch your beer, Sam'' Jake said. He wagged a bottle in the first guy's face. ``I've got my beer right here.''
They argued about it for a minute or two, then a third guy reached into a bucket of ice to extract a fresh bottle, which he tossed to Sam. ``Stop fighting about it,'' he told them.
Raph waited until Sam had taken a long drink from his new bottle and set it down again. He then once more drained most of the bottle and placed it near Jake.
This time the pair almost came to blows. The peacemaker finally stepped between them, handing Sam another fresh bottle and telling him to chill out.
While they were trying to calm down, Raph grabbed a nearly empty bottle and climbed back up to the rafters. Walking to a spot just above the trio, he tipped the bottle over and drizzled beer onto Sam's neck.
``You son of a bitch, I'll teach you to spit on me!'' Sam shouted, charging Jake with his fists swinging. He managed to hit the peacemaker in the process and soon all three of them were rolling around on the ground.
Raph slid back into hiding to watch the fight. With a chuckle, he muttered, ``I'd say that counts as three points.''
Meanwhile, Mikey had been ghosting his way around the perimeter of his side of the room picking pockets. After watching one man pull a fresh pack of cigarettes from a backpack, Mikey slid up next to it and inserted all but one of the billfolds he'd stolen.
That last billfold he artfully placed into the backpack owner's jacket pocket so that it was partially sticking out.
While he waited for that prank to take full effect, Mikey took out one of his freshly acquired smart phones and made his way over to the speakers. After downloading polka music onto the phone, he synced it up to the speaker system, turned off the phone that was in use, and made a quick substitution.
No one noticed the second of silence between the switch. They immediately noticed when polka music filled the air.
There were general shouts of confusion and then the man who owned the first phone ran over to find out what had happened. He saw at once that his phone was missing.
``Who the fuck took my phone?'' he shouted angrily. Snatching up the phone playing polka, he turned it off and waved it high in the air. ``Who belongs to this piece of shit?''
That was when people began checking their pockets. ``My wallet's gone!'' ``Someone took my phone too!'' ``Dammit, where's my billfold?''
It was when a guy with bright blue hair yelled, ``Hey! Why do you have my wallet?'' that the crowd quieted and turned to stare at the backpack owner.
Four gang members pounced on him, emptying his pockets and then his backpack. At that point the backpack owner showed that he had a good sense of self-preservation; he managed to slip out of the grip of the men who were pummeling him and make a mad dash for the exit.
Though the four men gave chase, the backpack man managed to elude them. They returned empty handed and grumbling about catching up to him later.
``I give myself a six for that one,'' Mikey murmured. ``One for phone guy, one for backpack guy, and four for the guys trying to beat him up.''
The ruckus that Mikey had created did not go unnoticed by Raphael, who realized his brother's prank had been worth more points. While the group's attention was otherwise engaged, Raph swiftly removed the connection bolts on several folding chairs, stopping when people began moving back to their original positions.
At almost the exact same moment, five chairs crashed beneath the weight of the men who sat in them. An older man, probably the leader of this group of Purple Dragons, began loudly proclaiming that one of their number was a prankster and had better damn well stop.
Raph gave himself five points for that prank. Across the room he spotted Mikey, who leaned out from behind a stock of boxes to give him a thumbs up. Then Mikey pushed the boxes over and darted out of sight.
Two men near the boxes began accusing each other of purposely knocking them over. While eyes were turned in that direction, Raph snatched a few packets of cayenne pepper from the table that held the party food and liberally sprinkled the hot pepper over a plate full of brownies.
Mikey and Raph continued in that vein for another hour. By then the music had stopped, most of the gang were covered in beer and food, and hardly anyone was getting along with anyone else.
The challenge ended when sirens sounded outside and flashing lights shone through the windows.
The two turtles quickly made their escape through the skylight, choosing to watch the parade of arrests from the roof of a building a half a block away.
``I guess backpack guy called the cops,'' Mikey said with a laugh.
``Damn that was fun,'' Raph said with a smile wider than Mikey had seen in a while. He slung an arm across Mikey's shoulders. ``You're a fucking goofball, but ya' sure have some good ideas.'' He quickly added, ``Not all the time, but sometimes.''
Mikey polished a knuckle on his chest, trying and failing to appear modest. ``They don't call me the Master of Fun for nothing.''
``Nobody calls ya' that,'' Raph said. ``Time to count up the points. How many ya' got?''
``Twenty-nine points,'' Mikey said proudly. ``No way you beat that.''
Raph stared at him. ``Twenty-nine? I've got twenty-nine.''
``No way!'' Mikey exclaimed. ``We're tied?''
``Looks like,'' Raph said with a nod.
``Well, come on then,'' Mikey said, standing up and running for the edge of the roof. ``Tie-breaker! Last one home loses!''
An expression of sheer enjoyment blossomed on Raph's face. ``Challenge accepted!''
