Raphael sprinted down a dark alleyway after the mugger. The bastard was fast, but Raph had more strength and more staying power, and he was not going to let this fucker get away. The freaking lowlife had left a guy bleeding on the ground after robbing him and stabbing him. Raph's brothers were somewhere behind him but he'd outpaced them in his need to run this guy to ground.
The mugger turned but Raph turned faster, grabbed him by the shoulder and slammed him against the wall. End of the line for you. Raph's blood sang in his ears, the roar of it drowning out all noise. The mugger's eyes bugged out, his mouth opened and closed but whatever he was saying was lost to Raph in the pounding, buzzing swirl of bloodlust that surged through him. His sai was in his hand, almost without him knowing, the grip hard and cold and heavy in his palm. He snarled as he thrust it at the guy's chest.
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder and flung him on his shell on the pavement. He leaped up again with a roar, only to slam into Leo's plastron. Behind Leo, Mikey punched the mugger in the solar plexus and he slid to the ground, wheezing.
"Back off, Raph, he's down." Leo shoved him backwards. "Calm down." Leo's voice was low and even. He pressed his hands against Raph's plastron, holding him back.
Raph shoved Leo's hands away. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to stop you from committing murder."
"This asshole just stabbed some guy and left him for dead!" The shakes were starting now as the adrenaline rush wound down, but damned if Raph was going to back off.
"It's not our call. The police should handle it." Leo took another step forward, palms out toward Raph.
"Police are on their way," said Donnie.
"What, to take him into a nice cell with a warm freaking bed and three meals a day? You think he's going to just see the error of his ways? 'Oh I've been a bad man, I should start a home for lost kittens' or something?" He thrust forward into Leo's face. "People like that don't change, Leo!"
"Sirens," said Donnie, with a slight edge to his voice.
Leo stood his ground. "So we should be judge and executioner Raph? There's a justice system for a reason."
"Fuck the justice system! We should be taking these people off the streets!" And now the shakes were really messing with him, making him want to lash out, making him want to grab something to stop the tremors in his muscles and he could see from Leo's expression that he knew Raph was coming down and that just made it worse.
"Siren's getting closer," said Donnie, louder and more insistent.
"We need to go," said Leo. He reached for Raphael's arm.
Raph shook him off. "Go fuck yourself."
"Raph-"
Raph took off. He ran until his shaking limbs burned with acid, ran until his breath was ragged in his chest. He launched himself up a fire escape and on to the roof of an apartment building, flopped down on his shell onto the dirty concrete, feeling the tremble in his fingers. The bloodlust had ebbed away and now he just felt weak and nauseous, like he always did.
He lay there until his breathing settled, looking up through the haze at the thin and distant stars. If Leo hadn't caught up to him he would have, yeah, he would have killed that guy. He would have. And he wouldn't have been sorry. Fuck you, Leo. You're wrong.