Chapter Three
Raphael walked from the movie theater shaking his head. Taking one final glance at the movie poster for Critters, he groaned and asked himself, "Where do they come up with this stuff?"
His frustration built as he watched the people around him expressing how good the film was. He wanted to vent that frustration with his fists, but remembered the words of Master Splinter to never get involved with the world above, unless to protect. This was New York, so he knew that opportunity would soon present itself if he stuck around long enough.
Sure enough, as he walked by the park once more, he saw two thugs steal a purse from an elderly lady. She cried out for help, but this was New York; no one helped anyone, anymore. This made Raphael smile.
He followed the two thugs into a secluded area of the park and watched from the shadows as they emptied the purse. "Ten bucks?" one of them said. "We robbed an old lady for ten bucks?"
"Give me that," the other said, rummaging through the purse. He pulled out a bag full of candy. "Bubble gum? Jawbreakers?"
Raphael was about to spring into action when suddenly, a man in a hockey mask jumped down from a tree. "I'll give you a jawbreaker, you purse-grabbing pukes!" he said. Then, without hesitation and in one motion, he grabbed a hockey stick from a bag on his back, spun around and cracked one of the thugs in the jaw, sending him to the ground. The other thug came at the masked man but the man took the hockey-stick and hooked the other thug's foot, tripping him and sending him into a garbage can head first.
"Now you're where you belong, scuzbucket-garbage."
The masked man then proceeded to mount the first thug and began pummeling him in the face. "Ten dollars? You robbed an old lady of her last ten dollars, punk? You committed a crime, and crime doesn't pay." He continued beating the thug and when he no longer resisted, he still smashed in his face with several fists.
Raphael saw that he wasn't going to stop anytime soon, and though he didn't like the idea of protecting a criminal, Master Splinter did say, "Only to protect." He ran at the masked man and pushed him off of the unconscious thug.
The masked man quickly found his feet and grabbed two baseball bats from his bag. He was about to attack when he saw Raphael's face. "What are you, some kind of punker?"
Raphael had not realized it, but his hat had fallen off and his green head was now gleaming in the lamplight.
"I hate punkers," the masked man said. "Especially bald ones that wear green make-up."
Raphael ran a hand across his head, now aware he was without his hat. He looked around and saw the thug freeing himself from the garbage can and went for his hat. He felt something hit him hard across the back of the head and he went down. The last thing he heard before passing out was the masked man saying, "Casey Jones is gonna clean up this town!"
"April, we could get into some serious trouble," the girl said. She was short, had huge glasses and kept her brown hair tied back into a pony-tail. She wore a sweater and skirt that if were different colors, one might mistake her for Velma from Scooby-Doo.
"Not if we don't get caught," April replied, smiling. "Come on, Irma."
Irma followed April across the street and near the rubble. She held a small camera next to her chest. They both kept their heads down low and tried to fit into the crowd that had begun to gather. It wasn't hard to fit in when everyone was just as curious as April as to what the heck actually happened the previous night. Vernon wasn't about to break the rules, so April had no choice but to call on her best-friend.
The police had taped the entire area off and some officers had ordered some of the more curious bystanders off the premise.
"Here," April said, pointing at a purple cloth. There was a red foot insignia woven into the purple. "Quick! Get a shot of this, Irma."
Irma pulled up the camera and took a quick picture. She whispered, "Are you sure this is a good idea, April?"
"Come on," April said, ignoring the question. She directed Irma to another area away from the police. "Here," she said and knelt down. "Get a picture of this."
There was a charred boot with what appeared to be metal toes sticking out. Irma stared at the foot in awe.
"Irma?"
"Right," Irma said, shaking herself from the trance. She quickly pulled the camera up and snapped another picture.
"Come on," April said, walking towards something that had caught her attention. Irma followed close behind. April stopped. "Check this out, Irma." She was pointing at a metal three-pronged object.
"What is that, April?"
"That is the evidence I need to finally convince Mr. Burns." She knelt down, looked around to make sure no one was watching and when the opportunity presented itself, quickly pushed the object into her yellow jumpsuit.
Irma's mouth hung open. "You did not just take that, April?"
April stood up and began walking, motioning with her head for Irma to follow.