The good news: you just inflated my ego with such awesome reviews.

The bad news: now I have to live up to, or be better than, myself (grumble, grumble).

Ah, well, I hope this chapter suits all of your likings, cause if it doesn't…well, I don't know what to do if it doesn't, but it will be something drastic, that's for sure.

Okay, I'll just go back and rewrite a few things, just let me know if this sucked, all right?

Renegade Ninja Raphael

Chapter 3- 'Unclear Intentions'

Watching the city at night was always a spectacular sight to Leonardo, as he leaned out the window looking at the scene that was unfolding before him. The city was always moving, an exquisite example of the world at large. It stops for no one and nothing, much like himself. When his sensei died, he didn't have time to mourn. There were always crooks to go after and crimes to stop. His job as the top NYPD officer hardly gives him any time to do anything except eat and sleep, and sometimes he even had to forgo the sleeping part. So how can he have time to grieve over anybody?

And now the disappearance of both Michelangelo and Raphael was just adding to his enormous workload. He sighed to himself, can't anything, for once, be easy for him?

A loud tittering coming from his right shoulder drew his attention away from the window. An average sized rat was sitting there, like a mammalian guardian angel, his shiny fur graying with age. Affectionately, he stroked him remembering the day his beloved sensei gave it to him…

"…Now, be careful Leonardo, rats get frightened easily and he could bite you."

"I'll be careful Sensei." A six-year old Leo replied, taking the adult rat gently from his master's hands. The brown rat sniffed experimentally at the boy, causing him to giggle with childish glee as he started to pet the animal on the head. Master Yoshi smiled fondly, because before the boys came into his life, his only family was his precious rat, Splinter, a gift from a friend before he left for America. He had a rather strong attachment to it, like he was an extension of himself. Letting Leonardo take care of him was a tough decision to make, as young children tended to be careless with animals. But Leo seemed to know how much Splinter meant to his sensei, so he was always careful when he was around his cage. In fact, he treated him more like a human rather than an animal: he would talk to it and give little bits of food for Splinter to nibble on, and he even started to call him 'Little Sensei' after he started to notice how the rat would copy each one of his moves when he was practicing, often alone. Slowly, with much reluctance, Master Yoshi started to let Leo have a small share in caring for the rat, like helping him clean the cage or give it baths. The whole time, Splinter was enormously patient with the boy; as if he realized that all the fumbling and minor slip ups was just a part of the learning process. Over time, Yoshi began to realize that Splinter was not so much his pet anymore…

"Leonardo?"

"Yes, sensei?" the little boy asked, looking up from playing with Splinter to pay strict attention to his master.

"I noticed for some time how attached you have become to my pet."

Leo's cheeks flushed, and he looked down in shame, "I'm sorry, Master Yoshi, I didn't mean to take him away from you, its just that-"

Yoshi held up a hand to silence his gibbering son, "It's quite all right Leonardo, in fact, I want to make a present of him for you."

The smile that brightened up the young boy's eyes was one that the ninja master would never forget, "Really, Master Yoshi? I can keep Lil' Sensei?"

Yoshi chuckled at the nickname, "Yes, my son, you can, you have shown much responsibility for a young age, and your attachment to my, I mean, your pet is obvious. If you need my help, I'll be here, but I'm sure you know what you are doing."

Leo looked at his master with awe, "Thank you Father…"

"Now go call your brothers, it's time for your lesson…"

It still brought a smile to his face, when he remembered how jealous his brothers got when they found out. Of course, they were allowed to have pets of their own also, Yoshi would not be so inconsiderate as to not let all the boys have what they want, but out of all the animals they had over the years, Splinter outlived them all. Leonardo liked to think that it was his exceptional care that extended the rat's life span, he often said it jokingly around family and friends. But somehow, he got the impression that it was not that at all…

His musings were interrupted by a sharp knock at his door. Being the Lieutenant of the police force had it perks, he couldn't stand living in those cubicles day after day, he liked a little bit of room and space to move around, but there was no privacy, at least not as much as he would like. He often didn't close that door, but when he wanted to, like today, he would close and lock it to keep people from barging in. But it never fails to have someone come to him with something; it was like they thought he was a robot with no feelings at all. With a sigh, he opened the door. A young man, no older than Leo, was standing outside half of him down in a formal bow.

" I apologize for interrupting, but you are needed in the lab, Dr. Stockman has something for you that he thinks you might want to see." The officer told Leo while still staring at the floor. Leo heaved a big sigh.

"You can stand up and talk to me, Riley, I'm pretty sure the floor isn't going to talk back anytime soon."

Riley looked up at the natural born leader with a smirk, jokes were never his forte, so it was nice to hear the ever serious teenager crack one once in a while, even if was sarcasm or somewhat bad.

Leo frowned at the smirk, "Shut up."

Riley looked at him with round innocent eyes, "But I didn't say anything." This exchange bought a feeling of déjà vu to Leo, like he could remember having this kind of exchange with someone else, but he repressed it down, business came first.

So he started walking with his companion by his side, the latter looking at his shoulder with a look of disgust, he hated rats.

"Never go anywhere without that thing, do you?" Riley asked, backing away as the rat came over to smell him.

"He's not a thing, he's, like, a guardian angel." Leo told him, the certainty of his words contenting him. Riley didn't look convinced though, but he kept his mouth shut and continued to lead Leo to the lab instead.

They entered an enormous room filled with gadgets that no one understood what they were for or even how they were used, but it didn't matter to anyone except those who worked in the lab, like Donatello. Leo could swear to himself that Don lived there, he was never home until the extremely late hours of the night, and he would take a quick nap only to return there early the next day. And with this new invention of Stockman's, Don spent more time there than ever before, as the scientist's personal assistant, he was the first one to work on and even try out some of these new things first. Don admired Stockman, and obviously the feeling was mutual for him too, almost equivalent to the relationship that Leo and Yoshi had.

Don's head bobbed down in greeting upon seeing his brother enter their relationship a cool one, where there had once been a fierce closeness between the four brothers had all but disappeared. Leo approached him anyway, even if they didn't act like family, they still worked together on a daily basis. He felt a curiosity coming over him as he watched his brother tinker away at something; it was a big something, with a platform and two laser-like things. Leo couldn't even fathom what in the world it was, but it must have been something extraordinary to have Stockman smiling like a maniac.

"Don, what's up?" he asked his brainy brother, but his brother seemed far to engrossed in that…thing that he didn't respond to his inquiries.

"Don? Don? Hello, is anyone in there?' Still no response, Leo was beginning to lose patience.

"HEY, DON!"

Donatello nearly jumped to the roof, he swerved around only to look into the face of one royally ticked off brother.

"Ah, Leo, were you talking to me?"

"If there was anyone else around here named Don, you'll be the first to know, guaranteed." Leo responded dryly, "And you should be more aware of your surroundings, especially with all the training you have in the art of ninjitsu."

Don winced, "I know that, and I'm sorry, but this had been holding my immediate attention and Dr. Stockman wanted it ready by tonight."

Leo sighed, but didn't want to push the issue with his brother anyway; he instead nodded his head toward the weird contraption, "So tell me what is that?"

"It's a transmat, and it is an invention that would do wonders for transportation in the future." Stockman answered instead, answering the question before the young teenager could respond.

"So you decided to notice me, huh? What took you so long?" Leo asked the scientist with obvious annoyance and dislike in his voice. For some reason, he didn't like nor trust the man, although he worked with him for so long. And from the frown the formed on Stockman's face, the feeling was mutual.

"A great genius like myself do not have to answer to the likes of you, you should show more respect to your elders, young man." He told Leo with obvious arrogance. Leo just stared at him with his classic piercing glare, eyes unmoving, unblinking, and without a hint of emotion in sight, it was only in battle that the leader usually uses this look, and it works wonders in intimidating people, no one can copy it.

"In here, you are an underling of the police, and you should mind your place. You work for me, not he other way around." He reminded the scientist, careful to keep his emotions in check as he watched the scientist's lips curl into a fierce snarl.

"Whoa, hold on, no fighting! There's a lot of delicate equipment in here!" Don exclaimed, quickly intervening between the two. Stockman just pursed his lips in anger, it was obvious that he didn't like having to take the commands of a sixteen-year-old, but what choice did he have? Leo had shown he was the best man to keep the force organized and controlled, one of the reasons Saki liked him so much was that he always put duty before anything else, a trait that still showed in the face of extreme family difficulties.

Leo was a difficulty in itself, but Stockman would soon elevate that problem once and for all…

Leo, satisfied that he had won that bout of arguing, set his attentions back on his brother, "So Stockman says it is a transportation device, is that all it does? Because I feel like I'm wasting my time looking at a thing that only fixes the problem of New York traffic…"

"No, not just traffic, you can travel anywhere you want, even cross dimensions…" Don said with a hint of excitement in his voice, he had been researching the idea for months. But Leo just raised an ironic eyebrow, not believing a word of it. Don just flashed a mock hurt look on his face.

"You don't believe me?"

Leo just stayed silent, the answer was obvious.

"Well then, you'll just have to try it out for yourself then, huh?"

Leo turned his head back to Stockman, who now had a smirk on his face, "What do you mean?"

"I mean you will be trying it out, along with Mr. Donatello."

Don looked shocked, "Huh, me?"

"Yes, you. You both will be on a field trip to go fetch your fugitive brother, Raphael."

Leo's eyebrows knit together, "How do you know where my brother is at? Or even how he can be found?"

"I analyzed your report, Leonardo, and have come to the conclusion that your brother was taken to another dimension by some means, through that portal you said he fell into."

"So you know?" Leo said through gritted teeth, turning his head to look at his lost brother. Don noticed this and said,

"Don't look at me Leo, I didn't know anything about this."

"How could you not know?"

"Boys, boys, there is no use in arguing about this now, it all been taken care of.' Stockman placed a hand on each of their shoulders and pushed them towards the platform.

"But-but, how did you know the coordinates, or even set them, this is only halfway done-"

Stockman silenced Don's sputterings with a wave of his hand, "Don't worry about it." He told the teenager, tossing him his trusty Bo staff and a remote like device, "Just use this control to get back when you found him, and you just leave the rest to me."

He left the two stunned boys on the platform as he turned around to the control panel.

"Have a nice trip."

And with that, they were taken apart in little pieces and each one floated up just to vanish into thin air. When they were gone, Stockman closed his eyes with a sigh of relief and said, "It is done, the plan is officially underway."

"Excellent." A gruff voice answered, "Master will be most pleased to see his creation being used."

"And a certain person would want to know if the plan has succeeded as well, so lets go tell her." With that Stockman went out another doorway where a huge, hulking figure stood, and together they walked down the hallway, leaving an uncertain future behind…