I decided to revisit this story and tell how Raph met Desoona in the first place.

Posted: April 5th, 2013

Raphael - Night Time Excursions

Raphael spent the most time aboveground. He was the one who had started the excursions in the first place around the time they hit teen-hood and it really hit him that they were only ones of their kind. Period. Yeah, he didn't like that.

Sure, they had been up top before but that was strictly for business - foraging. Raph's the one who started exploring the city and the other's had followed. He remained the turtle who knew and understood the city the best, he's the one who continued his trips to the surface after they had retreated from those exciting chapters of their lives.

Raph needed to get out before the little brothers drove him insane - there was nothing to do anymore since Leo had left for South America for his training. They weren't the only non-humans in the world - just the only turtles in the world. He'd been spending more and more time topside. Tonight, he had escaped their home for the cool fresh air of topside shortly after sundown so he had time to burn.

So, he headed for Coney Island. True, it was far away but when he emerged from the underground roads, he hitched a ride on the top of a train wearing a cloak he bundled into his small travel pack so he wouldn't attract the attention of a passing helicopter. When they were younger and all four of them were a little more wild, they had gone to Coney Island a few times at night and made a game of staying out of the spotlight of police helicopters, snickering from the sides of the train.

Leo had put an end to those after they were nearly shot but for once Raph hadn't argued. It had gotten boring after awhile.

Raphael felt at peace clinging to the top of the train, letting the night breeze cool him off. He kept an eye out for helicopters and made sure to move when needed but mostly it left to him his own thoughts.

It was summer but Coney Island was having some repairs. The open hours were reduced to give the crew some time to work on the repairs. Raph really didn't understand it. He had been under the impression that construction crews worked during the day. But hey, he wasn't the one running things and besides, why should he complain? That meant more free time for him.

Raphael hopped over the locked gates of the park with practiced ease and glanced around, ghosting pass locked down stalls and dark rides, heading for the seashore when the sound of human voices caught his attention.

He ducked behind the nearest structure, listening carefully as mocking laughter sounded and loud yells. He climbed ontop of the stall to get a better look.

A moment later, a girl came running out of the shadows and tripped over her own feet, landing hard on the ground as a trio of bat-wielding thugs rushed at her. She rolled over onto her back and used her feet to knock the thin thug over but she had to scramble back on her hands to get away from the other two.

"Come on, girlie, don't you wanna play?" the tallest thug said, walking casually, towards her, swinging his bat. "We don't bite,"

"But you hit,"

Raphael narrowed his eyes.

The third thug stood up and joined his 'friends' as the girl bumped into a booth that halted her escape.

The ninja turtle dropped down in front of her suddenly, blocking the downward swing of the tallest thug's bat with his forearm. He ignored their widening eyes and swung a quick snap-kick into the tallest thug's gut, sending him flying backwards into the pavement.

"Wha - what are you?!" the round thug - the last thug - demanded, pointing his metal bat at Raphael as his companion backward.

Raph grinned savagely, taking out one sai and spinning it. The thugs' eyes darted between the sai, Raph and the girl - they both looked at each other, dropped their bats, grabbed their groaning companion and ran..

Raph put his sai back in his belt, took a deep breath and turned to face the girl who was staring at him with huge eyes, her lips parted in shock.

He took a moment to get a good look at her - she had dark curly hair tied into a ponytail at the base of her neck, tendrils escaping and wisping around her light copper toned face and highlighting her light brown eyes. She wore a short-sleeved white-striped black tee-shirt with jeans and scuffed-up sneakers and gloves with the fingers cut off.

"You okay?" she nodded and let him help her to her feet.

He took several steps back from her as she brushed herself off and then, instead of running, she looked at him and said: "Teach me how to do that?"

Raph paused, blinked and stared. "You're taking dis pretty well,"

"Oh, don't worry - I was freaking out. To myself. I decided freaking out publicly would be rude." Raph raised an eyeridge. She had some interesting thoughts. "What are you, exactly? A ... turtle...human?"

"Nope. Jus' a giant mutated turtle. What are yeh doin' out 'ere, anyway? The park's closed."

"I forgot my backpack." Raph rolled his eyes. "It's really important! And I live all the way in Manhattan - I can't take the extra time during the week to make an epic journey just to get it!"

"Relax, relax. I'll help you find it."

"Really? Thanks! My name's Desoona by the way,"

"Raph,"

"Is that short for something? Raphael?"

"Yeah."

"Cool." she dug in her pocket and pulled out a mini-flashlight, then looked at it. "This is how they spotted me the first time,"

"Don't worry - if they come back, I'll scare 'em off. Let's find your backpack,"

Reassured, Desoona turned on the flashlight.

They found her backpack in the Lost & Found of the Ferris Wheel control stand and Raph directed the human girl out of the park after quickly slipping into pants and a large hoodie to hide his face.

"What would your parents say - you running around this late?"

She frowned at him. "I'm 22!"

"You don't look a day over 16," Raph said in disbelief and she just smiled.

"Then I age well," she said, heading for the train station. Raph looked over his shoulder towards the beach, shook his head and followed her.

"You never did answer my question," Desoona said as Raph kept an eye out for would-be muggers. He was actually kinda hoping they'd pop out - he needed some excitement.

"What?"

"Can you teach me to do that?"

"Scare off thugs?"

"Fight properly. Well, I took some martial arts classes in college but I don't have the discipline to keep up my training on my own."

She noticed that Raph was silent and looked at him,noticed that he was staring her from under his hood.

"You're takin' dis a little too well,"

"Would you rather I go screaming into the night?"

No, no he wouldn't. Raph looked down the quiet street and considered her question. He could use some time away from the others...and it was better than sitting around the lair, doing nothing. And Donnie kept grousing at him for not getting a job anyway.

"Sure," he said after such a long silence that she jumped. "I'll teach you,"

I was considering some other TMNT fanfictions and decided to expand on this.