This chapter will be pretty much a character study, written mainly to solidify the characters in my mind. Nothing of chronological importance happens in this chapter, it just delves into the minds of the guys.

*…* = Thoughts (it's in italics too)

Donatello and Raphael

Donatello

As I twist the last wire on my latest repair project, my mind wanders to my big project—the weapons room. The weapons room will store some of the more… controversial weapons, such as hand grenades and Triceraton blasters. Because of the nature of the room, it is to remain my little secret project until we really need it, I will only unveil it then. My main obstacles to overcome as far as secrecy are Master Splinter and Leonardo. Master Splinter does not approve of guns and most other weapons of the sort, and because Leo emulates him in nearly every way he can find, he harbors a strong dislike for them as well. If they were to find out, they would not allow me to fill it with such weapons. If I told Mikey, he would either not be able to keep his mouth shut about it or use it as blackmail. Raph, on the other hand, would have no problem keeping it a secret, but he would badger me with requests to 'train' with all the cool new gadgets, and would goad Mikey into bugging me into oblivion about it. So I must therefore work alone on my little 'pet-project'. However my time to work on it is severely limited due to the amount of work that is put onto me by my brothers and the general safekeeping of the family. The lair depends on my systems to warn us of intruders and keep them out, so if there is a failure in the systems, we are leaving out backs undefended until I fix it. There is no one else who can help me besides April, and she is getting busy with her shop, so I have to do everything solo. This being so, it has become increasingly difficult to find time to work on it.

I put the remote back together and sigh at my forthcoming doom at the hands of overwork. I take a deep breath and yell, "Mikey! The remote's finished!" I hear a clatter and the patter of light footsteps nearing my laboratory door. A mound of fidgety green is suddenly beside me, bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation.

He looked at me with wide, hopeful, and teasing eyes, "Is it really fixed Donnie? Really Really?!"

I sigh at his antics and nod. "This time it should be harder to destroy…" He makes to grab it, but I snatch it back, "Just don't try and hit Raph with it again, ok? I don't think it could survive another aerial battle." I toss it to him with a playful grin and shoo him from my lab.

*Finally, some downtime.* I go into the depths of my computer files and pull up my plans for 'Code Boom' (my codename for the weapons room). I have several encryption codes placed on the files because Leo has been learning a bit of hacking so he isn't so reliant on me to do it for him. I most certainly do not want him finding the plans. If he does, he'll either force me to throw them out or expect to use the room whenever their hearts desire. *However, this could just be my pessimistic side getting to me. It has been known to happen before…* I scan the file, checking for any previously overlooked errors in my schematics. I see none. My mind now turns to the crucial point of where to do the actual construction of it. The room was to be built inside of an armored car and made to look like a room. This way, the weapons are portable and able to be taken on missions with us if the need calls for them. *There aren't many places to choose from though, everyone has already pretty much claimed all the possible areas as 'theirs', so it's not like I can just go in there and say 'Hey! I need this spot for a secret project you can't know about, so nobody can come in here for a few months. We're good! Great! Now get going!' I have to be stealthy…* Just when I am about to do an internet search for ideas, Leo calls for a patrol. I groan and put up all the locks on my tech and the lair. *It's like he knows exactly when I'm about to do something important.* I grab my bo staff, and go into the main room.

(={"''}=)

Raphael

Leo calls for a patrol and I do a compulsory check of the edge on my sais. I am going to have to sharpen them when we get back, but they're fine for this. I wipe the sweat off my face with a rag and toss it into the soon to be mountainous pile. I go and wait next to Donnie.

. Everyone says that I am brash and that I do not notice anything around me, but this is not the case. In reality, I notice a good deal more than I show. I simply do not react to what I see in the same way that everyone else in the world seems to. Everyone always thinks that if they go out and help a person directly, with their knowledge of it, then the person will learn to look out for themselves rather than looking to help for such things. Someone's strength lies what he can accomplish on his own, rather than what you can do with someone to watch your back. Alone, it is possible to protect others from being hurt. Personally, I would rather myself getting hurt than Master Splinter or my brothers. This is why I am the first to throw a punch in fights.

It's different when I'm fighting with Leo, Mikey, or Don though. We have trained together our entire lives, so we know exactly where each other's limits are. I know exactly how much Leo can take in a fight, and he knows the same for me. After having fought mainly against each other for most of our lives (as we only started going topside regularly a few years ago), it has become like second nature to us to hold back from these limits, however we can go as close as we like to those limits. We have to push the boundaries of our limits, though. Because we all know each other's weaknesses, we tend to target those weaknesses, forcing the other person to learn to cover them. Out of my brothers, I fight with Leo the most. At this point, I know his limits the best, and I like to push those limits to get the best fight out of him. He thinks that he is the end all be all of us all, second only to Master Splinter. He just ticks me off whenever he makes a demand. Even him ordering us to run a patrol irks me. I would have run one anyway, with or without them, but him demanding one out of us irks me to no end.

Out of my brothers, I am least close to Donnie. The funny thing about that is that we are very similar if you take away his brains and level-headedness. Although he may not seem like it a lot of the time, Don is a cave monster. He holes himself up in his lab all day doing all his techie stuff, avoiding everybody, and lives off of coffee. I am becoming convinced that he injects nutrients into his coffee so he can stay in there longer. Whenever he unveils a new gadget and Mikey and Leo gather around him in their excitement, he gets a bit fidgety. I think that they see it as him being excited too, but I have taught myself to have a sixth sense about fear. It's how I get people angry when I'm bored, I find what they hate most, and poke fun at it. His pulse also quickens, but he gets that under control quickly, as well as his breathing. Because of this, I hang back a bit during these things, and listen to his explanation. The biggest obstacle between me and him is our methods of attack. He stays back and thinks about the best course of action, while I let my body react to what is around me. We both go about life using these styles, and because of that we will be forever blocked from one another.

We are all gathered by the door to the sewers. We leave and head for the nearest manhole. When we get close, Mikey, being his usual idiotic self, runs forward yelling, "Me first! Me first!" but upon reaching it, he stops and puts on a slippery grin. The rest of us catch up with him, and he says, "Well, I forgot my manners…" he does this cheesy little bow, "Ladies first, Raphie dear."

I smack him upside the head, "Oh no deah', after ya'" my brothers roll their eyes at me and we go topside.