Ch.14: Family Troubles
The night air grew chilly as Leo rubbed the cold from his arms. He and his brothers had been searching all night for Ghidora with no luck so far. Sunrise would be coming soon, in about two hours, so Leo phoned the others and they agreed to meet at the rondevu point before going home.
Raph hadn't picked up when Leo called, and although the blue-masked turtle thought that was a little strange, maybe Raph was somewhere where it wasn't safe to use his shell-cell. That would be a good excuse for not picking it up.
However, after Donnie and Mikey arrived, and Raph was still nowhere to be see, Leo began to grow worried again, and called Raph a second time, only to receive silence on the other end.
"Okay, that's not good," said Leo, hanging up the phone.
"What are we going to do?" asked Mikey.
"Raph said he was heading towards Chinatown right?" asked Don, in which Leo nodded "Well let's head over there first, and then I'll use the tracers in the shell-cell to see if he's still there."
"Sounds like a plan" said Leo " let's go."
Moments later, the three turtle brothers were jumping across Chinatown. Donatello took point as he traced Raphael's phone with his own cell. Steadily, the beeps were growing closer, which meant that Raphael was somewhere ahead.
They stopped outside the Black Dragon Boutique and were surprised when they saw the Ghidora symbol painted on the door.
"This isn't good," said Leo, and he and his brothers quietly stalked inside.
Keeping to the shadows, unaware if any of the Ghidora members were still here standing guard, the turtles sneaked on through, tracing the signal of Raph's cell.
Finally they found it, located in an empty room, where just seconds before Raphael had been captured. The sight of the red-masked turtle without his phone was all the proof Leo and the others needed.
Ghidora had Raph, and they had to find him, before anything could get worse.
The next morning, Thomas woke up with a yawn, stretching his arms as he rose in his late grandmother's bed.
It had felt strange when he had spent the night here. Empty, without his grandmother's presence hovering nearby. Thomas guessed it would take some while to get used to this strangeness, especially considering the emotional evening he had suffered before.
Hungry for breakfast, Thomas immediately got out of bed, and started to walk to the kitchen to prepare a quick meal when suddenly a knock sounded on the door.
Surprised, Thomas went over to answer it, curious to who it could be. Perhaps it was Raphael, checking to see if whether Thomas had a peaceful night.
However, when Thomas finally opened up the door, he was surprised to see his ex-wife and son standing on the other side. Two faces that he hadn't seen in many years, and yet still burned bright in the happiness of his memories.
Shannon looked even more beautiful than ever, with her dark hair and soft eyes. And Tyler, didn't to have changed much, still sporting his tough guy look in his baseball shirt and cap.
"Shannon, Tyler…" said Thomas stunned "What…when did you get here?"
"Late last night" answered Shannon, looking at her husband with a small scowl " our flight back home was delayed, so I'm sorry that we couldn't make it to your grandmother's funeral in time. Are you…taking it well?"
"I guess" said Thomas sadly, inviting his wife and son inside " She left me the house, and gave Rachel back her bear. All in all, its been pretty hard knowing that she's gone."
Shannon nodded in agreement, while Tyler looked around, noticing that someone was missing from the room.
"Where's Lucy?" the boy asked.
"Oh" said Thomas, looking at his son " A guy named Raphael took her away. Apparently, he helped out your great-grandmother a lot before she died. She even left him as probater to the will."
At the name 'Raphael', Tyler paused, knowing only one other person who possessed that name.
Back when his mom had been kidnapped by a bunch of goons, a giant turtle in a red mask had come to Tyler's aid. Introducing his name as Raphael, the turtle helped Tyler rescue his mother and put the bad guys away. Could this be the same Raph his father met?
While Tyler was pondering this strange scenario, his divorced parents continued to talk, catching up with current events, and eventually settling on other matters, like Rachel. Rachel was not a very popular subject to talk about.
Shannon thought it might be a good to visit his dad's selfish cousin, but Thomas was fighting hard not to agree. On the day of their breakup, Thomas tried to convince Shannon that Rachel was behind the crime he had been accused for, but she was to upset to believe a word.
Now since their separation, some of Shannon's anger had diminished, and she was determined to somehow reunite Thomas and Rachel again.
Finally, Thomas caved, and agreed to take his family over towards Rachel's house. Tyler stood up and immediately followed his parents from behind, ready to see his aunt.
The greeting wasn't warm once they arrived at Rachel's residence. The grumpy daughter looked like she had just been involved with something important when the doorbell rang signaling for family time.
In an instant, Tyler's aunt put on her false smile, allowing Thomas and his family partially inside, but neglecting to say that they should sit down and stay. Thomas didn't expect anything less, and as he listened to his wife talk to Rachel about current news and old times, Tyler immediately got bored of the discussion and decided to sneak around the house.
He crept silently from room to room, looking at all of the memorabilia his Aunt Rachel had managed to managed to collect throughout the years. She clearly hadn't lacked her liking for expensive tastes, but one item from her collection seemed to stand out from among the rest.
It was some kind of fancy, green phone, shaped just like a turtle's shell. Where had Rachel gotten her hands on this? It was definitely cool in Tyler's mind.
Yet, as the kid stared at the phone more and more, something about it looked familiar to him. Like he had seen this item once before, back when his mom had been kidnapped by that gang of thugs.
"That's it!" thought Tyler shocked, realization finally dawning in his mind.
His friend Raphael had carried a phone just like this. He explained it would be used to contact his brothers just in case anything went wrong while he was still blind.
"This phone must be his!" thought Tyler, taking it into his hands "But what is it doing here?"
Deciding to find out the answer later, Tyler quickly slid the shell cell upon his person and hid it away from sight. If this phone did indeed belong Raphael, Tyler was sure he would get it back.
Meanwhile, trapped somewhere deep in the darkness, Raphael woke up for his woozy eyes to see the rusty iron bars of his cage. Heavy shackles were placed upon his legs and wrists, preventing him from making to much progress towards the door.
Angry images flashed through his head as he remembered what trouble had led into getting in this cage.
He was in the hands of Ghidora now. That sick new group who took pleasure out causing chaos, not caring for innocent lives.
"Well, they're not going to keep me here for long!" thought Raph in his mind. " One way or another, I'll get out, and those Ghidora creeps will taste my shell!"