The purpose of calamity

Danielle Higgins

(I do not own the TMNT)

Chapter 1

"The Debt"

Raphael pulled his coat tighter around himself as he stepped off his motorcycle, making sure the zipper was as far up as it could go. His hood was pulled over his head with a black beanie underneath. His sun glasses hid his deep brown eyes, even though it was dark. A Black bandanna, with a skull printing, covered the rest of his face. The rest of him was just as well covered… all except his bulk. There wasn't much he could do about that.

Why all this caution when just trying to pick up a couple pizzas?

Well, when you are a 6 foot 6 inch talking turtle, attempting to walk around among humans, you can't be too cautious. In truth walking into a pizzeria was pushing it. But it was late, and as Raph had hoped, it was empty.

"Picking up an order for Michelangelo." Raph's deep voice rumbled out.

"Cool." The skinny teen behind the counter answered as he typed something into the computer then turned around to find the order.

Ding ding. The bell that hung above the door rang out, announcing another customer.

Raph quietly cursed the extra person he had to worry about.

The cashier came back from the back carrying four pizza boxes and three other boxes filled with… Raph wasn't sure.

"What's all that?" Raph asked as he reached into his pocket for the money.

"Oh, the guy on the phone added some cheesy bread and hot wings to the order." The cashier explained. He typed something else into the computer then announced, "That will be… fifty one dollars and ninety-six cents."

Raph stopped with his hand half way to the cashier. "Damn it, Mike." He grumbled under his breath.

He knew damn well he didn't have enough money. But, he counted it anyways. Raph sighed behind the bandanna that covered his face. "Look, whatever the hell he added…"

Suddenly the other costumer reached around Raph and slapped a twenty down on the counter. "You dropped this."

Raph blinked at the twenty, that he in fact had not dropped, then looked at the woman that had put it there.

Her pink lips were pursed in a serious expression, but her revishable apple green eyes glistened with sweetness. Her wild windblown hair framed her delicious beauty in an extremely distracting manner.

Raph wanted to argue, he wanted to tell the woman that he didn't need her money, His pride screamed at him to insist on just taking what he could afford himself. But all he could muster was a hushed. "Thank you." As he absent mindedly handed the cashier the rest of the money.

The smile that spread across her lips about did him in. If his heart pounded any harder it was going to burst.

"Here's your change." The cashier's voice snapped Raphael back to reality.

Reality then began to slap Raph with everything that was wrong with the moment; His pricked pride, the woman that was worlds out of reach like some unobtainable goddess, the monster he was that made him untouchable, the ease at which he was distracted, the universes general cruelty, and all this freaking pizza that he was going to have to manage on his motorcycle. By the time he reached the door he had worked himself into a bitter mood. Even still he couldn't help looking back at what he would never have.

"What's the name on the order?" The cashier asked the woman.

"Arayah Labelle." The goddess in biker leathers answered.

Raphael stepped outside to see a Black and red 2014 DUU V-twin cruiser motorcycle, with all the best options, parked next to his black and gray "stealth bike", as his motorcycle had been dubbed.

The machine was as beautiful as the woman that was now sliding her leg over it. She wrapped her wild hair up into a loose bun and slipped on a black helmet, then, after starting the motorcycle expertly, she slipped off into the night and even further out of reach.

Looking up at the heavens Raphael growled. "Why do you hate me?"

Raphael took his sweet time getting home, ensuring that the pizza was cold by the time he got there. He tossed the stack of pizza boxes carelessly onto the counter causing his brother, Michelangelo, to have to dive after them to keep the food from smashing to the floor.

"Dude! Respect the pizza man." Mikey complained as he opened one of the boxes.

"Shut it, Mike." Raph shot back at his brother.

"What the heck is your problem?" He asked through a mouthful of food.

"What is my problem? Are you serious, Mikey?" Raph exclaimed as he pulled his jacket off and threw it over the back of one of the mismatched chairs that sat around an old table.

Mikey responded with a shrug as he filled his mouth with more pizza.

"What are you yelling about now?" Leonardo, another brother of Raphael's, asked as he walked into the room. Each step he took seaming to have great purpose and direction. That purpose and direction was food, driven by the appetite he had worked up training and perfecting already expertly executed katas.

"Mikey added more to the order after I left." Raph complained as he gave the shorter, softer turtle a shove. "I didn't have enough money on me."

"Yet you managed to get it all. What'd you do? Grab it and run?" Mikey gave the more spartanesk turtle a return shove only to be shoved back harder.

Leonardo stepped between the two. "Will you guys knock it off." He turned his attention to Raphael. "You didn't just take any of this, did you?"

Most everything in their lives had been hard to come by… food, clothes…friends. Everything that ever graced their home, beneath the streets of New York City, had been re-purposed from one thing into another. What money they did have was what happened to slip through the sewer grates or was made helping their closest and most trusted friends, April and Casey Jones, with odd jobs.

The couple had also been kind in their charity to the mutant turtles and their sensei, Master Splinter...who was a six foot Rat. Despite the protests of the turtles, the unusual family was quite grateful to the couple who had so impacted, and had been equally as impacted by, the mutants. It is truly impossible to be friends with four mutant turtles and a mutant rat without being impacted greatly, especially if they can speak, all stand six foot and over, and practice the art of Ninjitsu.

"No, Leo. I didn't just take it." Raph glared down at Leo for suggesting that he would steel something when he could make due with less.

Raph was the biggest of his brothers, and marked with a red bandanna that was wrapped around his head like a mask. Two holes were cut out for his eyes and the tattered tails of his bandanna hung down to his chest. He was built like a Mac truck made of muscle and was more than happy to put it all to good use whenever the opportunity struck, using his twin sai to help get the job done. He was not the most disciplined and was often temperamental. Though he had gotten better at managing his temper over the years it still often got the better of him. He was however strong not just of body, but of character, If he believed something he was going to stand behind it one hundred percent. He was the kind of man you wanted to have your back in a fight but never have to fight against.

"Well, then how did you get it?" Leo continued his tone accusatory.

Leo or Leonardo wore a bandanna like his brother, as do all the turtles, except his was blue. And as opposite their colors, so were they. His weapon of choice was the katana.

If Raph was fire Leo was water, cool tempered and willing to take the time to find the best way through a situation. But, like fire often does with water, no one could bring Leo to a boil better than Raph. One thing they had in common was their stubbornness and utter determination. When working together they were nearly unstoppable. But when they clashed it was best to just get out of the way. Leo was also the designated leader of their clan, which, to his frustration, didn't mean he was necessarily listened to. He wasn't the tallest of the four but at six foot five inches, he wasn't exactly short either. Being the most disciplined of his brothers, he was toned, honed, and capable. If he felt he was lacking in any skill, he deemed necessary, he took the time to perfect it and left nothing half assed.

"A woman at the pizza place picked up the rest of the tab." Raph ran a hand over the top of his head as he tried to stifle his embarrassment. "Speaking of which, where is Donnie?"

"What does Donnie have to do with it?" Mikey asked

"I owe the woman twenty bucks, cause of you, Mike." Raph lectured.

Michelangelo was the shortest of the four brothers, standing at six foot two. Though they were all technically the same age, having always been the smallest, he was dubbed the little brother. A mentality he had embraced. He tended to be lazy. Happy to sneak away to video games, comic books, and sketch books, letting his brothers pick up the slack. However he possessed a welcoming warmth, like sunshine in the spring, that was brightened by his energetic and mirthful personality, The orange bandanna he sported also seemed to reflect this aspect of his personality. Despite all this, he possessed a great deal of skill as a ninja. Both acrobatic and quick he was simply a natural. His personality rolled over in his fighting style, perfectly complimented by the pair of nunchuku he loved as much as he loved food… and air. All, apparently, necessary for life.

"I was hungry, dude." Mikey defended himself from behind Leo.

Leo rolled his eyes at his brothers. Even pushing thirty they still all managed to bicker like children. "Raph, just take it as a gift. It's not like you can just walk up to her and hand her the money."

"I managed to get in and out of the pizza place fine didn't I?" Raph turned to search for the fourth brother, Donatello.

Leo frowned at his brother's retreating form. "I'm not exactly happy about how that was handled either."

Raph didn't give a flying leap how Leo felt about the pizza situation. So, Raph ignored him.

Donatello was found, where he can usually be found, in his workshop/lab tinkering away at something. His purple bandanna tails pushed back over his shoulders and caught up on some of the techy gear he insisted on carrying around with him everywhere. Donatello had always been one who liked to learn and see how things worked. As his understanding of technology had grown, so had his interest in making it better. He was the reason for anything and everything that made the turtles' lives easier; from running water and running vehicles in the layer to cell phones and tracking devices, as well as, Raph's favorite, the stealth bike. His fighting style was an extension of his intelligence, preferring to outsmart an opponent when possible while using his bo staff to masterfully subdue them when required.

Raph sauntered into the brightly lit lab and leaned against the desk by where his brother sat. The Lab was littered with all sorts of random things brought home from junk yards. Tables were covered with tools and chemistry sets. There were also shelves upon shelves of books. All of which the purple banded brother had read at one point or another.

Don eyed Raphael as the large turtle crossed his arms and let his eyes wonder about the room. "Hey Raph, what do you need?"

"Pizza's here." He informed.

Don nodded and stood up, to a daunting six foot nine inches, from the project he was working on. Raph may have been the biggest in build but Don was the tallest.

"Hey, Don…" Raph said as he poked at a random springy thing. "Can you look someone up for me?"

"Look someone up? You say it like it's as easy as opening… I don't know a phone book, or using google." Donatello dropped the not so subtle hint that Raph could do it himself.

Raph shot Don an irritated look. "Our phone book is like a hundred years old and most people have cell phones anyways, and I ain't no good at that computer shit."

Don winced at Raph's terrible grammar. "am not any." He mumbled his correction then sighed. "Who do you want me to look up?"

Since Don was sounding like he was going to maybe be helpful Raph let the verbal correction slide by with no more than a scowl. His expression quickly softened at the thought of the attractive woman from the pizzeria. "Her name is… umm…"

Donatello's eyes widened with surprise. "A girl? You want me to find a girl?"

Donnie's surprise wasn't so much at Raph's possible interest in a female so much as it was that Raph wasn't one to seek a woman out on a whim. He had gone off on everyone on several occasions about how stupid any of the turtles would have to be to think for a second that a human female would be even remotely interested in any of them. This beratement would usually come after one of them had foolishly attempted to seek out the affections of whatever female might have held one of their interests. Anything that had ever come out of an attempt had been short lived. The curiosity and novelty would quickly ware off and the reality of what it would mean to have a relationship with a giant turtle, that lived in secret below ground, sent women, not always running, but in the least, regretfully retreating to the lives they had known before. Raphael always there with the "I told you so." That none of them wanted to hear. The once entertained ideas of falling in love and having a possible mate had long been forsaken by the turtles.

Irritated again, with his reaction to the woman that had caught him off guard, Raph glared at Donatello. "Arayah Labelle, I owe her Money."

"How much?" Don asked not quite over his initial surprise.

'Not enough for all this trouble' Raph thought to himself. But then his pride began to poke at him with its sharp claws yet again. "It doesn't matter. She was riding a CR&S DUU motorcycle. That should help narrow things down."

Don raised an eye ridge. "Ya, that should narrow it down."

The motorcycle wasn't a cheap item to come by and even if you could afford one it wasn't one you would find at just any dealership.

"Good. Thanks Don." The two then made their way back to the kitchen to scavenge what was left of the pizza.