Ch.10: Healing Flames, Crimson Moon

Silence had all but gripped the Lair the moment Splinter saw his sons come home with an injured Raphael in tow. Casey and April followed soon behind him, and the rat's old eyes nearly sprouted in tears when he saw the worried expressions on the two humans faces.

Fixing up a quick makeshift infirmary, Donatello slowly began the steady process of recovering Raphael's wounds. Although there many along his unconious brother's body, none of them seemed to life threateningly deep.

"I guess we have his Nightwatcher armor to thank for that" thought Don " although without the helmet he still suffered the aftershock,"

"Will he be alright Donatello?" asked April.

"He should be" said Don " nothing to serious, and his body's warmed up. I think just a few good hours sleep and he'll be fine,"

All at once everyone let out a huge sigh of relief, happy to hear the good news.

"I still can't believe he survived through a trap like that," said Mikey.

"Me neither" said Leo " I'm just glad that he did,"

Master Splinter nodded in agreement, and noticed the glow of the red jewel clutched tightly in Leonardo's hand.

"My son, what is this?" asked Splinter.

"Oh" said Leo, looking at the amulet " I don't know. Raph had it with him when we pulled him out of the river. He must have taken it from Grind,"

The blue-masked turtle handed the amulet over to his Master who studied the strange gem curiously in his palm. Something about this jewel seemed to strike an ancient memory, but he could not recall from where.

"I must look in my books tonight," thought Splinter, before finally giving the gem back to Leonardo.

"Here" said Splinter " keep it 'till your brother awakes, and then meet with me. We all have much to discuss this night,"

About an hour and a half later, Raphael's eyes flickered open to meet the dim light of the lair, feeling much better than so long ago. Shifting his weight so slightly to turn Raphael could hardly hold back a grin when he saw a slumbering Donatello fast asleep from the previous excitement of the night.

Suddenly the sounds of footsteps reached his ears, and Raph propped himself up on his arms to see his younger brother enter the lab with a tray of food in his hands.

"Hey Don!" yelled Mikey " I brought your sup...,"

The shout was stopped in mid-setence when Michaelanglo caught a glance of Raphael. Dropping the tray with a bang, Mikey startled Donatello awake, and immedaitely ran over to hug his red-masked brother. Raph really didn't mind the hug, allthough he was still a bit embrassed by it.

It didn't really help any when Don decided to give into the hugging too after shouting out to the whole world.

"Raph's awake! Raph's awake!"

Soon Leo, Casey, April, and Splinter all came into the room as well, pleased to see that the hot-tempered turtle was alive. At least Casey and Leo decided againist the hug thing, instead delievering a more manly, friendly punch in the arm and smug smile.

With a little assistance from Mikey and Don, Raphael managed to sit up in the sitting posistion and breath his own little sigh of relief.

" You gave quite a scare Bro," said Mikey.

"Yeah I gave myself one too" said Raph, looking around " what happened to my armor?"

" I had to take it off in order to examine your injuries" said Don " it just surprises me that the explosion wasn't as serious as it looked,"

Raph pondered on Don's statement, and then looked at his injuries himself, finding it odd that they were minor. Grind wasn't one to do things half-way. It should've been impossible for him to survive. Questions of survival were cut off though when Leo approached Raph and returned the amulet to his hand.

"We found this when we rescued you" said Leo " what is it?"

"Karai's prize for capturing me" said Raphael " I snatched it from her when she threw me in the freezer. Heh, I'd like to see her face when she discovers that its gone,"

"She probably already knows," thought Leo. Nothing ever stayed secret from Karai for long.

"Well now that we know you're alright" said Casey " I guess me and Ape can go home. It's almost dawn up top and we've had a long night, but we'll be back to help you all later,"

"Sure thing Case," said Raph, giving a goodbye bump to his friend's fist, and soon both humans were heading back towards the surface.

When they both were gone Raph's gaze locked back down on the amulet clutched in his hand, and again a familar scream echoed through his mind nearly making him jump. Splinter perked up his ears while the other turtles looked at Raph confused. He had heard the scream as well, and looked closely at his hot-tempered son.

Something more was going on here than a mere visit from Raphael's past. Something was coming. Something big.

Meanwhile, outside on the surface, a Nightwatcher rally was in full swing, with the Mayor's daughter herself shouting praise through the megaphone. Arella was very dissapionted when she overheard her father siding with the police that the Nightwatcher was a menance that had to be stopped at all costs, well she was not going to take his side.

The authorities had their opinion, they had theirs. This Nightwatcher rally was going be the absolute perfect way to convince her dad otherwise.

With a whole group of fans cheering beside her, Arella felt empowered and strong, ready to take on anyone or anything that tried to stop her. And that's when the gunshots were heard.

Suddenly the cheers turned into screams as five heavily armed thugs plowed through the crowd with small guns clutched in their hands. The biggest of the group immediately pointed out to Arella, making the girl nearly jump in fright.

"Grab her!" shouted Grind, and Arella quickly sprang off the platform and ran off.

The thugs split off as well, taking different directions through the panicked crowd, trying to box in the fleeing form. Arella ran throughout the streets and back alleys, seeking some hope of escape.

Footsteps pounded behind her, and she knew the thugs were getting close. Finally relief came when she saw a police cruiser coming up, and quickly flagged it down to jump inside. The thugs that had made it this far, cried out in anger as they watched their target slip away. Arella grinned smugly at them and then turned towards the officer.

"Thanks" said Arella " it was lucky you showed up when you did,"

"Think nothing of it my dear" grinned Amal under his stolen uniform " nothing of it at all,"

"Eh!" Casey yawned, as soon as he and April arrived back in their apartment " time for a well worth sleep,"

"You can say that again" said April, plopping down on the couch " I don't think I can make it all the way to bed,"

"Well we could always cuddle up on the couch," grinned Casey with a wicked smirk.

"Casey!" said April, immediately realizing her boyfriend's intentions.

"Okay, just kidding" said Casey " I'll just carry you to bed instead. We can cuddle up some other night,"

"Try next month Mr. Jones," said April, as Casey gripped her by the shoulder and slowly walked them both to bed, neither noticing the sign of a shadowy presence watching them outside.

"Mistress Karai" called in the Foot ninja " the turtles human friends have just returned home. Your orders?"

"Capture and seize," growled Karai.

And with that said, the Foot ninja signaled to other shadows, and on the count of three, they all charged in.

Back at the Lair, Master Splinter sighed in his room after closing one of his ancient books. After many hours the mystery of Raph's discovery was finally found.

The Red Comet, said to have the power to make anyone or anything immortal. Which would explain Raphael's miraculous recovery from that explosion on the docks. It was good that his son had managed to snag it from Karai.

Standing straight up, Splinter knew that he must inform the turtles of this information at once.

"No matter what it takes this power must not fall into Karai's hands" thought Splinter " for if it does, then doom may wait for us all,"