A/N: Based on the new cartoon series 6 months after Exodus I & II (end of season 3).
Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT, or any related characters (much to their relief, I'm sure!) If there is anything else in this story you recognise from somewhere else, then I don't own that either.
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The night air was cool and fresh. The streets were almost deserted at this late hour, especially in this part of town. Raphael wasn't in any rush to head back underground. He had snuck out of the lair earlier to catch a movie marathon of Batman 1, 2 & 3. Now he was meandering down the city streets, window shopping and enjoying the fresh air. Splinter had eased up a lot on his restrictions concerning topside time over the last year or so; though Raph suspected he would still be in for a lecture when he got home anyway, and that could wait.
As Raph turned a corner he spotted a group of punks a little way down the road. He slipped back round the corner to conceal himself, even though he was wearing his trench coat and fedora. Sneaking a peak his suspicions were confirmed. Most of the punks had prominent tattoos of dragons; the marks proof their membership of the Purple Dragon gang. The leader of the group was a tall guy whose dragon tat covered half his face. Raph had tangled with him before. The other five in the group seemed to be fairly young, probably newbies to the gang.
Raph watched the group as they nonchalantly made their way down the street, heading away from him. Then they all disappeared into a side alley, the neon sign that lit the area read 'Dan's Discount Depot'. Raph grinned to himself, it looked like he was gonna have a bit of fun tonight. He carefully made his way down the street towards the alley. He paused when he got to the entrance to scope out what was happening. The back door to 'Dan's' had been forced open, the alarm system module just outside the door was issuing a thin white smoke.
Most of the group were inside the shop, Raph could hear them rummaging about and talking. They obviously weren't to worried anyone was gonna hear them. One girl had been left outside to keep watch. She was obviously a real newbie; she looked to be around 15 and was wearing one of those tops that tied on around the neck and waist, leaving her back bare. Her tat was freshly done; the skin was still pretty bruised around it. The serpent wound its' way across the small of her back, then up the left hand side. Its' tail disappeared under her jeans near her right hip and its' head came to rest on her left shoulder.
She wasn't being much of a look-out, wandering slowly up and down the alley, mainly inspecting her boots. Her long hair was tied back in a pony tail and she had pulled it over her right shoulder to run her fingers through it while she waited. "Arrogant bitch" Raph thought to himself, he assumed she had swallowed all the crap the Purple Dragons usually fed their newbies about how they were the toughest gang around, even the cops rarely interfered with 'em. In fact that was pretty well true; but he would teach her, and the others, that a tat didn't really give that much protection, no matter how cool it looked.
Raph grinned in anticipation; he hadn't had a good scrap for a while so he was gonna enjoy this. He pulled his fedora on a bit tighter and loosened his coat so he could rest a hand on the butt of his sai, relaxed but ready. As he sauntered into the alley the girls head snapped up to watch him. That gave him a little pause, maybe she was a bit more alert than she had seemed. She observed him for a few moments "Hey mate, this alley is taken, find a home somewhere else for tonight, eh?" Great, she thought he was a bum. "Not lookin' for a home" he grunted; then waited to see what she would do next. She didn't seem to be frightened of him, though the alley was dark and with the light at his back she probably couldn't make out his features too well.
Her brow furrowed a little and she glanced towards the broken door to the store, then she reached into her pocket "Look, this isn't a good place to be right now. Here's five bucks, just take it and go before that lot come back out." She nodded her head in the direction of the door as she offered him the note. This was weird, what the hell did she think she was doing? "I don't want your money, lady" he growled. She took a couple of steps back at that, raising her head to look down her nose at him. "Well there's nothing else for you here except a world of hurt if you don't bugger off, now".
One of the punks appeared in the doorway holding large boxes marked 'Sony" under each arm as she finished speaking. He glanced at her then at Raph. He wasn't such a newbie, Raph felt a thrill of satisfaction as the punk face faulted recognising the threat he posed. "SHIT! Dragon-face, it's one of those tur…Uh!" his warning abruptly ended by Raphs' fist smashing his mouth. The boxes clattered as they fell, Raph grabbed the stunned punk by his T-shirt and threw him into the alley wall opposite. The punk collapsed to the ground, unmoving. "One down…" Raph thought as the other punks rushed out of the building. The first two out the door were almost as easy to down as the first. The third was a bit more fun, he had come out swinging a crowbar and knew how to move, but it was still only a couple of minutes before he was joining his friends on the ground.
Raph returned his weapons to his belt and straightened his hat slightly as he surveyed his handy work. Dragon-face wasn't among the limp bodies, and neither was the lookout. He glanced down the alley to see her standing a short distance away. She hadn't screamed or run or anything he had expected her to do, she was just stood there watching him. Raph scowled, he wasn't that keen on being studied. He ignored her for a moment as he stepped over to the door to check where Dragon-face had gotten to.
As Raph poked his head in he saw that one of the front windows had been broken through. Obviously Dragon-face had run, probably to bring reinforcements. "Damn." That just left the girl. It wasn't his style to beat up on unarmed girls, so he'd just scare her a bit. Make her think twice about pulling this kind of crap again.
He turned back towards her with a dark look, drawing his sais he took a step forward. Now he noticed why she hadn't run, it was a blind alley and he was still stood between her and the street. She started to look a little worried and stepped back as he approached. Raising her hands to ward him off she spoke in a guarded tone "Hey, I don't want to fight you, OK?" "Too bad, you get a tat like that" he pointed to her shoulder "you gotta expect a bit of trouble." Glancing at the marks he indicated she grimaced slightly. "Fine, whatever."
He was already annoyed at losing Dragon-face, and with this chicks' attitude. When she gave him an angry glare he felt the last shred of his temper snap. Who the hell did this chick think she was? He leapt forward, reaching out to strike the vulnerable spot on the side of her neck with the curved wing of his sai. She reacted much quicker than he anticipated, ducking under his arm and even landing a punch on plastron as he passed. He grunted, more with surprise than pain, her response was louder "Argh, damn what are you wearing under that thing?" She shook her hand as they faced off again.
An evil sounding chuckle escaped Raph; he sized her up a bit more carefully this time. She had some skill and was pretty quick on her feet. He had the clear advantage though, they were of similar height but he had more weight to put behind his blows, his 'in-built' armour, and he was armed. Maybe she wasn't gonna be a complete push over, but that just made things more interesting.
She dropped into a defensive stance as he lunged at her again. She feinted as if to block his blow with her arm, but disappeared from sight again just before he struck. She managed to back flip under his arm, catching his hand between her boots. They must've had steel caps because the pain they caused shocked him into loosening his grip on his weapon, allowing it to be pulled from his hand as she completed her manoeuvre. She performed a second flip to put some distance between them.
"Bitch!" It was his turn to nurse his hand briefly as she stood to face him again, the captured sai held in front of her as she crouched slightly in a ready position. She smirked at him, knowing she had evened the odds a bit. "Big mistake" was the last coherent thought Raph had. He was seriously angry now, any notion of not trying to hurt this girl fled as he spun his remaining sai. The point of the weapon was directed at his opponent now as he launched himself at her again. "HaYAHH!"
The two danced in a flurry of blows for a few moments before she managed to land a solid kick on his side, knocking him a little off balance. "AARGHH!" her face contorted in pain. She had kicked him with the top of her boot, behind the protective metal plate. She hadn't expected to encounter a hard ridge running down his side. He took advantage of her distraction to recover and land a kick of his own on her solar plexus, knocking her backward off her feet and onto the prone bodies of the other gang members. She cried out again once she managed to sharply suck some of her breath back into her body; arching her back as the bruised flesh around her tattoo complained sharply about being abused so.
Raph started to approach, intent on retrieving his property. Suddenly he was all but blinded by a large truck pulling in the end of the alley. Quick as a flash he leapt backwards, away from the glare of the headlights. The alley was blind, but a fire escape beckoned near the rear wall. Raph was up it and looking over the edge of the roof above the alley before the punks in the truck had reached their fallen comrades.
Dragon-face had certainly brought plenty of reinforcements; they poured out of the back of the truck and started to mill about the alley. Dragon-face ran over to the girl who had managed to sit up. He seemed pretty concerned about her now, talking to her intently. Raph saw her nod to his enquiries then she pushed him away. Dragon-face stood and started issuing orders to the other gang members. As the punk walked away from the girl Raph thought he saw her wince, then reach down under her thigh to fetch out his sai. She quickly glanced around; no one else was paying her any attention now. Then she stood quickly, if a little unsteadily, and slipped the weapon into the top of her jeans, pulling her shirt over to hide the handle.
It was all Raph could do to stop himself from leaping back down there and retrieving his weapon, preferably with extreme physical force. However, he knew when he was outnumbered. He continued to watch as Dragon-face returned to the girl and tried to help her to the truck, she didn't seem to want him to touch her. Within a few minutes the rest of the casualties were also loaded, along with a fair amount of the stock from 'Dan's Discount Depot'.
Once the truck left Raph peeled his fingers from the parapet, his knuckles had gone white from the pressure he had exerted on the concrete. He heard the wail of police sirens approaching. "Friggin' typical!" he muttered at the 'timely' response from the city's law enforcers. By the time the cops arrived he was long gone as well.