CHAPTER THIRTEEN

FRAGILE TRUCE

"Where's Raphael-san?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know or you don't care?" Mica pressed.

Leonardo glared at her.

She sighed deeply as she sat down on the edge of the couch. "You spent the entire day in your room," she reminded him. "Donatello spent the entire day in a lockdown on..."

"That is enough, Mica," he snapped, cutting her off.

"Okay, fine," she mumbled. "So what are you going to do about it?"

He didn't answer. Why did she think he had to answer to her? He never would've even thought of speaking that way to Master Splinter. "Do you want to know what I think?" she continued when she got no response.

"If I did, I would ask you."

"I think we need his help."

Leonardo looked up. "Do you have a reason to be in here?" he asked.

"On my way to the dojo."

"Go there, then," he shot.

"And I wanted to give you this."

She placed a folded piece of notebook paper on the coffee table and stood up. He watched her walk away, then turned his eyes to the paper. A messy string of ten numbers was scribbled diagonally in black marker. He sighed and his eyes slid closed.

***

Raphael stared down at the city streets, absently toying with the sai between his fingers. The new building that they'd chosen when the old one was destroyed was just outside the city, much closer than before. He could be there in ten minutes, but he wasn't sure what he'd do when he got there. He needed a plan. He knew he couldn't just break in and take him away. He wasn't even going to tell Leonardo where the building was, because he knew he'd try just that.

He chuckled at the thought. Never in his life did he think he would have to hide information from Leo to keep him from doing something irrational. Leonardo had always been so calm and collected. Things had changed so much, and he still wasn't sure what to think of it all.

His cell phone rang and he reached for it. The caller ID didn't recognize the number. Normally, he didn't answer calls like that. But he figured it might be Mica. "Yeah?"

"Where are you?"

He was only slightly surprised to hear Leonardo's voice. "Rooftop across from Vinny's. Or what used to be Vinny's. Guess it's called Parlor Place now." Raph chuckled. "Can't tell if it's a pizza joint or a strip club."

"Don't leave."

The line went dead and he hung up the phone. He slipped it back into his leather jacket and shrugged his arms out of it. He laid it across the ledge and grabbed his other sai from his belt. It had been a long time since he'd used these. They were so much heavier than he remembered them...

He twirled them both and nearly dropped them, but managed to lock his fingers through the prongs, crossing them over his chest defensively. He stared for a minute at the way he was holding them, with all four of his fingers, two on either side of the center blade. It didn't feel right. He turned the one in his right hand and caught it again, this time with only his first two fingers. He tucked the others underneath the prongs. He grabbed the blade and pushed hard against the hand that was holding the weapon. It didn't move. He had a much better grip on it this way.

He tried to turn it again and it clattered to the cement rooftop. He sighed and concentrated on the other one. He closed his fingers over the handle and placed his thumb over the area where the prongs interjected with the center blade. There was a slight bump there. He swept the other sai up into his hand and turned it backwards. Woah, that didn't feel right, either.

He spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to hold and turn the weapons with two extra fingers. Even if he'd remembered everything, he would've had to figure this out all over again. He relaxed his muscles and closed his eyes. He knew that somewhere in his subconscience, he did remember. He just had to bring it out. And there was no telling how long that might take. One way to find out...

He braced, then spun out and kicked at an imaginary opponent. He ended in Kiba Dachi, and looked down at his hands. He'd turned one of the sais to point behind him and raised the other one. He was covered on all sides. Now what? He repeated the movement, and this time got one step further, sliding his right foot back to Nekoashi. He snap-kicked forward with his left leg, then spun. Slowly, it was coming back to him. He'd learned this before. He remembered it, very faintly.

He looked down and saw that both weapons were pointed behind him now. He shifted his weight to his right leg and brought his left foot up and behind his knee. He remembered that stance, but there was something wrong with it. He lowered his foot again and faced forward. Reinoji-Dachi. This was a natural stance.

"You can't move from Sagiashi to Reinoji."

The voice startled him and he turned around to see Leonardo leaning against the ledge. He hadn't even noticed him. But somehow, he wasn't surprised. "Oh yeah?" he challenged. "Why not?"

"Where are your opponents?" Leo questioned. "You got one to your right you just avoided, but you never attacked him. Then you turned to the front again."

"Well, if someone's in front of me that's more of an immediate threat..." Raphael started.

"Then you would immediately go into an attack stance," Leo interrupted. "Not a natural."

Raphael grinned mischeviously. "Sorry, Leo-sensei, it's been a while."

"Obviously."

Leonardo's voice was cold. Raphael sighed and slipped the weapons back into his belt. "Did you want something?" he asked, abandoning any hopes of not turning this into an argument.

"Donatello needs your help," Leonardo said coldly.

There was something so satisfying about being right. But Raphael resisted the urge to rub his brother's nose in it. He knew it was already humbling enough for Leo to spit it out. "Okay..." he started, not sure what he was supposed to say. He'd known that for a long time. It was nothing new to him.

Leonardo sighed. Raphael wasn't going to make this any easier for him. "I don't even know where to look for him."

"I know where he is."

Leo turned to him, surprised. "How?" he asked. "I thought the building was destroyed."

"It was," Raph mumbled. "They went somewhere else."

"And you know where?"

"Didn't I already say that?"

"Okay..." Leo prodded. "And you've... been there? How do you know?"

"I did some research," Raphael mumbled. "No, I haven't been there. I just talked to people."

"Where is it?"

Raphael didn't answer. Leo nodded silently as he realized he was being ignored. "Okay well, maybe it would be better to go there now, while it's dark. Instead of in the morning."

"You're not going," Raphael stated firmly.

"Like hell I'm not going!"

Raph turned and glared at him. "Then go," he answered. "You don't need my help to get yourself killed."

Leo opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again before any sound came out. He felt anger stir inside of him, but let the conversation pass. He leaned forward on the ledge and stared across the street.

"So Mica has a boyfriend," Raphael mumbled.

"Yes."

"You ever met the guy?"

"Yes."

"And he seems okay to you?"

"You going somewhere with this?"

Raphael turned to look at him. "Yeah. I am. I don't like him."

Leonardo laughed. "You don't even know him!"

"What's a seventeen year old guy doing with a fourteen year old girl, Leo?" Raph challenged.

Leonardo wasn't even going to ask how he knew how old he was. "Since when does age matter to you?" Leo returned. "You expect me to believe you never slept with girls younger than you?"

"That's exactly my point," he mumbled under his breath. "You really want Mica seeing somebody like me? He's gonna screw her over without thinking twice, and you're gonna have one royally messed up little girl."

Leonardo sighed. "Look, he's been a regular part of her life for over a year. And I don't have any complaints."

"No, of course not," Raph mumbled. "She'd be stupid to tell you he was the one driving that car last night." Leonardo flinched. "Or that everyone else in that car got together to gangbang at his house this afternoon."

Leo turned and stared at him in disbelief. "Yeah, right."

"I was there, Leo. I checked him out. And I don't like what I saw." Leonardo didn't answer. "He's using her for something," Raph finally concluded. "And it's not sex or she would've been out that door today whether she was grounded or not."

Leonardo sighed. "Raph, just..." He searched for a way to say what he wanted to without starting World War III. "Stop, okay? It's none of your business."

Raphael sighed and looked away. He watched the people pass by on the brightly lit streets below. It was a long time before Leo's voice jolted him to attention again. "So," he started quietly. "Las Vegas."

"Yeah," Raph mumbled. "Las Vegas."

There was another long pause. "What's it like?" Leonardo finally managed.

Raph shrugged. "City of Sin, looks just like it sounds."

"That's not what I meant."

Raphael's eyes slid closed. He'd suspected that. "I won't lie to you, Leo," he mumbled. "It's nice to not have to hide all the time. Wear ten layers of clothing in the middle of July so people don't see your skin..."

"Was it worth it?"

Anger flared like a pile of dried leaves touched by fire. Raphael set his face like stone and turned to Leo. "Was it worth what?" he demanded.

Leo stared at him coldly. "You know what I mean."

Raphael fought back the urge to kill the son of a bitch where he stood. Instead, he pushed away from the ledge and grabbed his jacket. "Fuck you, Leo."

In an instant, he was gone.

***

Carrie looked up as a man walked through the front door of the building, escorted by a security officer, at nine o'clock sharp. "Can I help you?" she asked.

He smiled politely. "Yeah. I'm looking for a Dr. Richardson."

Carrie eyed him suspiciously. "And you are...?"

"My name is John. Tell him I have information on his research."

She raised an eyebrow, but didn't question him. "Just a moment; I'll let her know you're here."

Carrie closed the window again and reached for the phone. It rang four times before it was picked up. "Dr. Richardson? There's a man here who says he has information for you about your research. Do you want me to tell him to leave?"

Dr. Richardson paused. "What does he look like?"

Carrie looked again out the one-way glass. "Average height, blonde hair, kind of spiked, tanned skin and dark glasses. He looks about twenty-two maybe. I'm not good at guessing ages."

There was another silence. "I'll be right there, Carrie."

Dr. Richardson hung up the phone. "What's going on?" Dr. Lexton asked, looking up from the microscope he was studying.

"It's probably nothing, Paul," she assured him. "I'll be right back, okay?"

She pulled the goggles off of her head and dropped them to the table. Then she walked to the door, closing it tightly behind her. She walked down the long hallway, listening to the steady click of her heels on the tile floor. She took the elevator down, and made her way to the front lobby. The man waiting for her was exactly as Carrie had described him. He wore a brightly colored button-down shirt and a pair of baggy, light colored jeans. She guessed that Carrie had been about right on her guess of his age, though he might have been a little older.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

The man stared at her for a moment, seemingly taken aback. The doctor smiled as his eyes ran over her long legs. She knew he couldn't help it, and that fact alone was amusing. "You're Dr. Richardson?"
"Yes."

He seemed surprised. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I was expecting someone a little... older."

She smiled. "You were expecting my father," she informed him. She'd heard this story before. "He's retired now. Is there something I can help you with?"

He snapped back into reality. "I read his work, a long time ago. About his experiments with a race of mutants?"

The doctor crossed her arms over her chest, inspecting him carefully. "Yes, that's right," she confirmed. "My father led those experiments." This much had already been released to the public long ago, though the details of the experiments, and their limited success, had not been offered.

"Have you ever thought of... continuing your experiments?"

The woman eyed him suspiciously. Surely he could not know of the recent developments in their investigation. The public didn't know that there were more of the turtle mutants, or that another had been captured. "What exactly, do you mean?"

The young man smiled. "I don't suppose you're aware of the fact that one of those mutants has living offspring?"

The doctor's interest was instantly peaked. She glanced at the one-way mirror looking into the receptionist's area. If this information would lead to anything, she had to be careful how much of it was heard by civilians. "Won't you... step into my office?" she asked.

The man smiled mysteriously. "Sure."

He followed her through the electromagnetic doors and into a room to the right. "How did you come about this information?" she questioned.

The man laughed. "Oh, it's real simple. See, I date the girl."