Of all his brothers, Raphael had a tendency to hate humans the most. Every night, he and his brothers would head to the surface and fight against humans whose sole purpose seemed to be to hurt and destroy. His family had their share of scars from the likes of Baxter Stockman and Agent Bishop – humans – who experimented them, then battled against them when they fought for their freedom. Humans started wars and created bombs and turned beautiful places, like Central Park, into their personal dumping grounds. Humans would lie in waiting and to rob, beat and injure.
Raph wanted to hate humans.
But then he remembered that April and Casey were humans. He knew that humans loved and cared for each other. Humans worked together to rebuild that which had been destroyed. Humans saved lives at the cost of their own. April and Casey had risked their lives countless times to help out the turtles, and they were human.
So, Raph conceded that he sometimes hated humans, whereas his brothers were more positively inclined.
However, courtesy of his solo trips to the surface, Raphael actually saw a lot more of the bad side of humans than his brothers did. He knew the exact number of times he had ripped a man off a screaming woman only to have her see him and run away screaming about a 'monster'. To be thought of as more monstrous than the rapists he had saved those women from was a dagger to the heart.
So, rather than resent humans entirely, Raphael worked towards stealth, most notably his disappearing capacity, which surprised his brothers who knew he fancied less of the subtle, and more of the gun-ho ninja attitudes. He would always be around to help those who needed him, as was his duty as a ninja, but he would never be around for a second more than that. His brothers, similarly, liked to leave the scene as soon as possible, just to save the anguish of seeing someone running and screaming, but none more so than Raphael.
So when the red-banded turtle and his older brother stood in a New York alleyway, surrounded by unconscious Purple Dragons, before a white-faced teenage boy whose first reaction was the squeak in fear, Raph steeled his emotions for another tally to the 'monster' count.
"Oh. My. Gawwd!" the boy enunciated, staring at the bodies before him.
Leo, knowing Raph's aversion to sticking around, took in his carefully blank face and gave him a side-long glance, silently signalling to disappear.
Raph nodded, melting back into the shadows.
"Where do you two think you're going?!"
The abrupt question shocked the two turtles, and they shared a bewildered glance before looking to the teenager before.
"I'm fairly sure that was the best throw I've ever thrown in my life! Oh my gawd, and it was a knife which is so much cooler than, like, a football! I definitely deserve some high-to-the-five goodness. I mean, yeah you guys were amazing, but you seem to know what you were doing and I totally threw a random knife and it didn't, like, go backwards or anything!"
Raph turned to face the kid fully, completely baffled, watching as the kid before him waved his hands around in front of himself enthusiastically as he spoke, an unguarded smile gracing his features. Taking a minute to gather himself, the boy ran forward, grabbed Raph's uncooperative hand and clapped it against his own before skipping back in place.
"Whoohoo, high five to us! So, do you guys live around here? 'Cause boy-oh-boy do I appreciate you sticking your heads out the window to see my miserable butt about to get kicked to Timbuktu. It's always a good day when your butt doesn't see Timbuktu – in fact, I would say it's a perfect day if Timbuktu remains nothing but a myth to any and all butts. In that case, from everywhere on Earth except Timbuktu, my butt says thanks to you two."
Leonardo snorted, and Raph's head jerked to face his brother, expression stunned. Despite the genuine shock and confusion that Raph had experienced in the past ten seconds from this random kid, 'Mr Perfect/Sensei-Junior' snorting was more than his brain could handle, apparently.
"Your…butt…thanks us?" Leo slowly clarified, ignoring Raphael's stunned face staring at him open-mouthed.
The kid nodded sagely, then added with a cheeky grin, "And very sincerely, too, might I add."
"Well then, your…butt is very welcome, I guess," the blue-banded turtle replied, with a slight grin. Leo gave a funny look to the grinning boy before him, then looked to Raph beseechingly, not seeming to know where to go from here with the conversation.
Saving Raph from having to conduct a lesson in social courtesy was a distant squeal that the two turtles knew could only belong to one person.
"Haha! Suck it, D! I am the almighty, and still reigning Turtle Racing Champion!"
"Mikey, I swear if you don't keep it down, I'm going to muzzle you!"
"Sore loser! You're just a sore looo-ssaaaahhhh!" Mikey sang back.
Following Leo's line of sight, the teenage boy looked over his shoulder and squinted up at the rooftops, seeking the source of the commotion. Seeing nothing but some fleeting shadows which he quickly brushed off as a figment of his imagination, the young teenager was actually still looking up at the roof by the time Donnie and Mikey had jumped down and joined Raph and Leo in the alley.
The two younger turtles were speechless. Seeing the bodies strewn in the alley, they reacted without thinking and leapt down from the roof, scanning the area for potential threats, and seeing only one human before them. A single look from Leo, however, made them sheath their weapons and the two youngest shared a confused look. Here were Raph and Leo, respectively the most obsessed with hiding from humans and ninja stealth, standing and maybe even talking to a random human, out in the open, in an alley, surrounded by unconscious Dragons. Mikey scanned the boy before him in curiosity as Donnie scanned his brothers for damage – particularly to their heads.
"I guess it was my imagination," the boy said eventually, beginning to turn around to face back around, "although I swear I hear–GAH!"
The boy before them jumped as he realised the number of turtles had doubled.
"Mitosis!" he blurted, before covering his mouth and with a small snort.
"Excuse me?" Donnie exclaimed, face incredulous.
Before him, the boy was outright laughing and pretending to fan himself.
"My goodness, you should announce yourself before you join the conversation! I literally lost a good four months of my life – which probably doesn't sound like much, but it adds up, okay! I so did not hear you come up and I turned around and there were so many of you and rather than saying hello like a normal person I figured I would reference a reproductive mechanism, instead. My bad!"
Donnie had a funny smile on his face. "You know what mitosis is?"
The kid grinned, "I…might-osis!"
The purple-clad turtle grinned at the pun – science puns were his favourite! And also the least appreciated form of humour in his family. Turning to face his two older brothers, Donnie inclined his head at the boy.
"Who is this kid" he questioned, eyebrows raising as a sheepish look crossed Leo's face and Raph shrugged.
"Yeah, I probably would be able to answer that better than them anyway," the kid spoke up cheekily, "How about you try asking me?"
Mikey stepped forward, laughing and swung an arm over the kid's shoulder comfortably. "How about I try asking you?" the youngest turtle asked.
"You could try, I suppose," he replied with a mock-pensive look on his face.
"Then, what's your name, bro?"
The boy pretended to think about it, before grinning openly, "Nathaniel. Nice to meet you, butt and all," he stuck out his hand to Mikey, who shook it bemused, as Raph raised an amused eyebrow.
"Well, Nathaniel, meet my big bros; Donatello–super-nerd and genius extraordinaire. That's Leonardo–he's the eldest of us and the leader, and that ball of sunshine is Raphael –he's our party-planner and event's organiser," Mikey joked as Raph rolled his eyes. "And then there's me, the bestest, brightest, boldest and bravest of the lot – Michelangelo at your service for any and all liquid-awesome necessities," he finished grinning widely.
Nathaniel laughed and happened to glance at Raph, whose eyes were looking to the sky, mid-eye roll.
"Surely you would sprain something rolling your eyes that hard, Raphael?" Nathaniel teased.
"Nah," Donnie interjected, "his eye-rolling muscles get more of a workout than any other muscle in his body." Nathaniel did a once over Raph's well-muscled body and turned to the turtle wrapped around his shoulder.
"Man, you must be seriously annoying!"
Raph's face broke into a wide grin at that and Mikey pouted. In the distance, sirens were beginning to sound faintly, and Nathaniel watched as the blue-clad turtle tensed slightly.
"We should go," Mikey predicted in a high voice, just as Leonardo was opening his mouth, before shutting it sheepishly and glaring at Mikey.
Nathaniel laughed and looked as if he were about to say something consoling to Leo, before he pulled a strange face and began coughing heavily.
"Uh…you alright, dude?" Mikey asked when the coughing didn't cease after a several moments. Nathaniel nodded, and waved assent with his hand before bracing his hands against his knees as he bent over. Donnie stepped forward, squatting to look into Nathaniel's face as he was hunched over, trying to catch his breath between coughs.
"Did he hurt himself at all?" Donnie asked Leo and Raph as he began scanning the boy for injuries.
"No, I don't think so," Leo replied, "but he did take down the Dragons' leader before I could get to him. I didn't think anything had actually hurt him, though. Maybe a few bruises and a bit of a scare."
In the distance, sirens wailed, gradually getting louder as they got closer. Leo shifted somewhat anxiously, looking over his shoulder, suddenly aware of how vulnerable he and his brothers were out in this open space.
"We do need to go," Leo restated.
"We can't leave him here," Raph shot back, surprising Mikey as he echoed the younger turtle's thoughts.
"G-go," Nathaniel choked between coughs, his face red, but waving his hands and giving them thumbs up, as if that alone would send them on their way. Donnie, having done a once over, looked lost as to what was ailing the boy.
"We're not leaving him!" Mikey affirmed, looking from Raph to Leo. Leo looked to his two other brothers, who nodded in agreement.
Decision made, Leo motioned for Donny to carry the boy and keep an eye on him, and then for the turtles to head to the roof, stealth-mode.
Scooping up Nathaniel, Donatello winced at the coughs still wracking his chest. Looking down at the boy, Nathaniel didn't appear to be happy to be carried bridal style, but had enough sense to realise that he couldn't climb up a fire escape or leap across roofs the way the turtles were doing. Concentrating on breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth, Nathaniel tried somewhat unsuccessfully to bring his coughing under control. However, as the cool night air coupled with the rushing winds that increased in intensity up on the roof, his lungs and sternum began to ache in response, and Nathaniel was grateful for the shoulder his head could fall on in his exhaustion.
"Splinter is going to kill us."
The Apprentice