The Perfect Son.

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.

Rating: T - PG 13 some violence and quite a bit of swearing.

Author's note: This is a rewrite of my original Perfect Son Story - I dropped the rating to PG13

Prologue: Leonardo.

The night was cool, there was a heavy cloud cover over the sky blocking out any light from overhead causing things to be much darker then they might be normally.

Though, New York with all it's street lights, neon lights and other buildings lit up could never be termed as being totally in the dark unless there happened to be a power outage.

I leaped from one roof top to the next, making use of wires that were strung up, or by using fire escapes along the sides of the building and sometimes just sheer momentum was enough to carry me over from one place to another.

In spite of the cool night, the relaxing familiar moves of the exercise I had to fight, to force back rising irritation that I felt I was far from a meditative state tonight.

The cause of my irritation was, Raphael!

Oh, he'd often take off for a day to blow off steam and sometimes he would forget to call to inform us that he was all right. But in all our time together he had never disappeared with no contact for over two days, unless he was being held captive.

It was due to that reason that my brothers and I had split up tonight to check the usual Raph haunt areas, last I heard Mike and Don had found nothing and were heading home, but I wasn't quite ready to leave off just yet.

Though, we had contacted Casey to see if Raph had gone to bust heads with him. Casey had stated simply that he hadn't seen or heard from Raph for about the last three or four days.

So, where ever Raph had disappeared too he had done it on his own.

I knew that he had often bragged to me about hustling pool at some bars in town. He would dupe some sucker into thinking he couldn't play losing a few rounds and then up the ante and rake it in. If those, he fooled decided to break into a fight over the con, he was quite willing to "teach" them a little about that too, and as he put it, "It just adds to my entertainment value Leo."

I don't know why he even bothered to tell me about such things, when he knew I would never approve of such past times- not when it might end up endangering all of us.

Of course, Raphael was full of contradictions and, just as stubborn as I was, in my own way.

I made another jump and felt some wind brush against my skin and play with my bandanna tails, as I leaped the alley. I landed securely on the roof top and kept moving, keeping to the dark shadows, and my own dark turbulent thoughts.

I recalled a time, when Raph and I were younger we had been very close, the best of friends as well as brothers. But as we grew older Raph seemed to grow a little more closed off, more angry and impulsive and now we often seemed to agree to disagree.

Raph wanted me to take things a little easier- to stop being such a bossy 'leader' type, to desist with the lectures. I never really meant to lecture him, in spite of what he thought. I just wanted to talk some sense into him, of course what I tried to imply never seemed to get past his thick shell.

I was too responsible, and he wasn't responsible enough. He never seemed to want to acknowledge that his impulsive actions could end up doing all of us more harm then good.

There were two things Raph was good at fighting and aggravating me. He seemed to go out of his way to aggravate me, and then we'd end up at each other's throats.

Well, Damn him anyways!

I'd been searching for some time now and my anger and irritation was rising along with my fear, doubts and uncertainties.

I paused and looked out over Central Park, the leaves rustling soft whispers as the wind brushed over and around them. I took a deep breath or two doing my best to calm down.

Yes, I was upset that he hadn't phoned - that he had taken off without telling anyone where he was going, not unusual for him. But I also was fully aware, that he might be in some sort of trouble.

Trouble. Raph and trouble went hand in hand, in many ways, he often went out looking for it. I mean, a fellow who went out into the city for the sole purpose of beating up on the drug addicts, crooks, muggers and rapist wasn't exactly doing it for the right reasons.

I knew with Raph it was just as likely that he had returned home by now and crashed into his bed for some sleep, without so much as an apology for worrying the rest of the family.

It was very much like him to do, just, that he had done it many times before. Where did he get off being so inconsiderate, I wondered. My ire, raising even further.

In seventeen years, you'd think I'd be used to it by now. Used, to it and to him. But no, I wasn't.

Maybe, because every time I knew he disappeared I had no idea if he was really hurt or not.

Suddenly, I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned from looking out over the park, I couldn't see anyone or anything out of the ordinary. I couldn't see anything, but yes I sensed it.

I not only sensed it, I felt it! There was someone else here, close by trying to stay just out of sight and not allowing any detection of any kind. But I knew that they were there.

We had our enemies in New York, advesaries who were not amused by the fact that we had killed their leader Oroku Saki, also known as the Shredder.

They were without a leader and so they would have been fighting amongst themselves, as they tried to find someone worthy enough to take over.

I wouldn't be surprised if the new leader, to prove his worth would have to kill at least one of us. It was that reason more then any other that had caused me to send out the search party tonight.

I felt that my enemies were indeed, close…too close for comfort.

An image suddenly flashed in my mind, a Christmas Eve night almost three years back now when I had gone on a lone exercise run that ended up in me being lulled into a trap, beaten and tossed to my family barely alive.

I clenched my fist, and gritted my teeth, my eyes narrowing to mere slits. I was not going to make the same mistake twice. I vowed this silently to myself, 'caution.' I reminded myself, would keep me from falling into the same trap twice.

I whirled and jumped to another roof top, hoping to lull them into coming out to show themselves. I caught a flicker of movement. Yes, someone was following me.

I still wasn't sure how many there were. I needed a secure place to battle from, until I found the right spot though, I would have to keep them moving or see if I could lose them somewhere along the line.

I will not make the same mistake.

I will not fail, as I had failed on that Christmas Eve.

I will not fail my family or friends, or my mentor or the training he had provided me.

This battle, I swore, would be different!

TBC