The Perfect Son.

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.

Chapter One- Desperate Search

Raphael:

I came sneaking in late that night, knowin' Splinter would be sleeping by now and there was no sign of my brothers in the lair. I gave a rueful shake of my head, knowing Leo, he had sent them out lookin' for me.

He really ought to know that I didn't need a babysitter and on top of that, he should know better then anyone that I came home when I was good and ready to.

I flopped down on our couch, it like the rest of our furniture was worn, battered -large holes in it, stuffing coming out of it and if you knew what it's original colour was - or might have been before - then you were doing pretty damn good.

I picked up the remote off the table, and began to click through channels before settling on some low grade horror movie.

I heard the door open behind me and it was followed shortly after by a jubilant crow, "Well, looky whose home!"

"I've been here half the night Mikey," I replied simply, not even bothering to face him.

"Yeah, right you have Raph!" Mike declared as he came to sit down.

"Leo have you looking for me again?" I asked.

"Yup, and when he comes home I found you," Mike insisted.

"Bull!" I snorted and turned back to see some zombie chow down on some other character.

"I did find you though Raph," Mike pointed out, "I found you right here."

I gave an indifferent shrug, "Okay, whatever Mike."

We sat there for a while watching the movie, Mike often laughing at the supposedly scary scenes and then talking in the more boring parts. I had no problem with Mike, he didn't get on my nerves and he was rather fun to hang around with.

I didn't mind Don either, though sometimes when he got into long winded explanations I was ready to plant a fist into his mouth. But for the most part he was happy to putter around, creating or fixing what ever he felt needed his attention.

It was a pity Leo couldn't have been more like them. My life would have been a lot easier if Leo had been less like…well, Leo.

Don came strolling in half an hour later, carrying a box of computer parts and wires.

I glanced over to look at him and smirked a little, "Gee, Donny so nice to know you were looking so hard for me."

"I couldn't pass these up, Leo at home?"

"Lucky for you, no! You'd probably be in as much crap as I am for lookin' for me in the dumpsters of every tech shop in a fourty block radius of the lair."

Don just grinned at that comment, before turning and heading for his lab to sort through all the goodies he had scored.

I rose from the couch and stretched, "Well, Mike I'm gonna go crash. I'm beat."

Mike chuckled, " Or you will be when Leo gets home Raph."

I snorted, "We both know for a fact that Leo isn't gonna be home till just before sunrise. You know how thorough he is. No stone unturned, and then he'll come home and be pissed as all hell that I'm here."

I left Mike watching TV and went to crash in my room. Crash being the right word cause I was out like a light and didn't hear anything until I woke some hours later, just in time for a three hour gruelling practice session.

Surprisingly enough Leo didn't show up for practice. Now, Leo only missed a practice if he was so sick he couldn't haul his shell out of his bed, so it was really strange that he didn't show up.

Splinter kept casting me dirty looks. Like, I was to blame for his perfect son's tardiness. Leo made his own choices, he was the one who decided to go looking for me - he was the one who was late.

So, naturally I got the blame for it. It wasn't like I couldn't care for myself, and when it came down to it Leo was perfectly capable of looking out for himself too.

But it would be wrong to blame Leo for it, he was after all the Perfect son. It would be wrong to blame Don and Mike who had nothing to do with it what so ever. I had to accept the blame.

I suppose we were no different then a lot of families that way. Leo the favourite son rarely, got punished or needed discipline - hell, he'd discipline himself. Don got busy with his own stuff hardly needed any form of punishment - fact is I couldn't recall last time brainiac had gotten into some sort of trouble.

Mike, okay he got into trouble and mischief of all kinds but he was like the baby of the family - able to weasel his way out of all sorts of punishments just by giving a sad eyed look or pleading with the Master or some other trick. Splinter, went easy on him, and he charmed his way out of a lot of things.

I wished I had his skill in talking my way out of stuff. But it was a technique that I couldn't use. Not that I blamed Mike for using it.

Me, I was sort of the black sheep of the family -as it were- the one to get into trouble and more often then not be blamed for it. I was the teenage . rebel, the one to cause fights, rebel and go against the rules. When Leo and I got into arguments, it was Leo who was most often believed. Leo could never do anything wrong, and I was often at fault.

When I was younger I had tried to please Master Splinter, be good, do as I was told and all that boring stuff but somewhere, along the line, I gave it up and decided to be me. I had worked it out that to be me I had to be as opposite from Leo as possible. If I couldn't be good, then I'd be bad. Heh, go figure!

Anyways, morning practice was over and Splinter dismissed Mike and Don to give me time to hear that age old lecture about responsibility.

Like, I hadn't heard that one before. I'd heard it maybe about a million times so far. With Leo I could turn around and walk out, but Splinter was different I had to at least stay, and pretend I was at least paying attention to him even though I could have given him the same speech word for word.

I didn't see the need to give it to myself though, I mean I did have two members in my family who felt they needed to give me such talks on a regular basis. Besides, if I started giving the lectures to myself then Leo and Splinter might think that they were finally getting through to me.

I had to give them something to do with their spare time, and since lecturing me seemed to be a favourite hobby I couldn't exactly take it away from them. I just tuned it all out anyways.

Finally Splinter dismissed me and I went to get some breakfast it was about ten in the morning by now. Splinter followed me out to the kitchen.

Mike was sitting at the table still filling his face with some cereal.

"Michaelangelo, have you seen Leonardo?"

"No, Master Splinter." Mike replied quickly as he shoved the last spoon full of food into his mouth.

Splinter's brow furrowed and he scowled deeply. It was easy to see that he was worried and concerned. "I will be in my room meditating." He stated casually, before he moved off.

Even I was shocked to hear this, Leo normally would not be out at this time of the day. He should have been back no later then seven in the morning, and should have been back before that. Besides, Leo wouldn't worry the family this way.

It was my job to worry the family. I knew Leo wouldn't just be gone and not contact us, not intentionally, or even do it as a reverse psychology sort of thing, to get back at me.

No, something must have happened to Leo. "Mike which section of town was Leo covering?" I asked.

"East Side Raph." Mike replied, as he rinsed out his bowl at the sink.

I grabbed a piece of cold toast that had been sitting on a plate on the table, "Right, I'm going to look for him." I stated quickly, as I took a bite of the toast.

"Want me to come with you Raph?" Mike wondered.

I shook my head, "No, stay put here Mike. If Leo comes back tell him I'll be home before one. No need in too many of us being out top side during daylight hours."

I grabbed my gear from the coat hooks near the door, the large overcoat and fedora style hat, pulling them on as I headed out the door. I knew moving around during the day light hours were a lot more difficult, far more chances to be seen. But, I planned on sticking to roof tops and back alleys which ought to provide me at least some privacy and quiet, and those were the only places that Leo would have been anyways.

I peeked out of the manhole cover ensuring the alley I was about to enter was quiet before making my move. From there it was a quick hop to the fire escape and up to the roof tops.

I was a good tracker under most circumstances, but having no idea where Leo had started from, how much ground he had covered and all other variables I just had to hope that I'd come across something in my search, to let me know what had happened. I covered a good bit of ground the first hour or so, but found nothing to show for it.

It had to be getting close to noon when I saw a shuriken in a back alley, there was some dried blood on it. I scowled slightly, wondering exactly whose blood was on the throwing star.

I began a more thorough search of the alley, there was some other blood spots and some of them were extremely bad, telling me that there was a major wound of some kind.

The Foot soldiers would have carted off their dead 'brothers' if any of them had lived to do so, but would they carry off Leo if he was dead? They might take him prisoner if he was still alive, that I had no doubt of.

I investigated further and saw a blood trail heading for a fire escape, I followed it up to the roof top to find further signs of a battle continuing up there. I found bits of broken weapons, and more blood. The Foot may or may not come back for their damaged weapons.

I felt a cold shiver run through me, as I thought of the Christmas eve when Leo had learned he had not killed the Shredder after all, or so it must have seemed back then. In truth, he had died but had been brought back by ancient Foot remedies, that were lost to most people - and that was probably a good thing.

That was why, when Leo killed him a second time we made damn good and sure he wouldn't be coming back for a trilogy -as Mike would put it.

Leo hadn't told us much about how our enemies had gotten the drop on him on that training run, but you can bet he wasn't doing anything foolish. I mean, Mr. Responsibility, right?

Why did I suddenly fill now, that, that Christmas Eve and today's battle were going mean the exact same thing. Trouble, for Leo.

It had taken Leo long enough to recover from that battle.

I had to find him!

I practically ran toward the next alley, but there was nothing there. Which, meant the fight had continued on the roof tops somewhere. It took a couple of tries before I found the right roof top.

The blood up there was incredible, it seemed to be everywhere -splashes, small puddles of it. I found a piece from a turtle shell, a broken off bit from the carapace by the look of it.

'Hell Leo, where are you? I don't like this, not one bit!'

I dropped down into another alley and found more blood and further damaged weapons and a huge pool of blood near a dumpster. I jumped into the dumpster and began to root around the garbage to see if Leo had been tossed in there. I found his mask and it was soaked in blood, and then I found his katana.

Or, what was left of them. The blades had been broken, and there was blood on what was left of the metal as well as on the grips. But there was no sign of Leo, himself.

I growled in anger, my eyes narrowing. I longed to hunt the Foot down and persuade them to tell me what they had done with my brother, where he was, if he was still alive, and pay the bastards back for everything they had done to them.

Still the family had to know what I had learned, and I did very much want to believe that Leo was still alive out there somewhere.

I wasn't looking forward to telling Splinter, about what I had found or learned. For a moment I debated about my options my anger telling me to go after the Foot and the other part of me telling me to go home.

Reluctantly, I headed for home trying to figure out what I was going to say and how to say it, so Splinter wouldn't take it so hard. Our father was getting older, and this past winter had been particularly hard on him. He was slowing down with age, and while he didn't exert himself too much now, it was easy to see that it didn't take a hell of a lot to 'tire' him out. Don, was concerned about his arthritis, and his heart which had caused some problems the last year or so.

It was after one in the afternoon when I returned home. Splinter and Mike were sitting in the living room talking, both of them turned to face me. There was an expectant look in Splinter's eyes, a faint glimmer of hope, that faded quickly when seeing it was only me, and no sign of Leo.

I took a deep breath, still not quite sure what to say, so I took a deep breath and did the best that I could. I chose my words very carefully, more so then at any other time in my life.

"Master, I'm sorry. I didn't find Leo. I believe Foot Soldiers found him, there was signs of heavy battle, I'm sure Leo fought well, but was severely outnumbered by them," I explained, "I found a piece of Leo's carapace and these…" I withdrew Leo's mask as the broken katana, "I'm sure Leo must have been taken prisoner."

Splinter gazed forlornly at the bloody souvenirs, his whiskers twitched a little and his nose wrinkled a bit. He raised one hand and then seemed to stagger back his eyes growing, large and wide then glassing over.

I moved quickly to catch him, sure that he was going to lose his balance I saw him reach one hand to move weakly over his chest. I turned my head, "Mike quick, go make some of Splinter's heart stimulant tea, move it!" I barked at him.

Mike leaped over the back of the couch and scrambled for the kitchen wasting no time in following through, I just had to hope he'd use the microwave and not waste time, the Master needed that tea fast!

I then yelled, "Don! Donny get in here NOW!" I packed our sensei to the couch to lay him down and prop him up with the pillows. "Sensei, just relax, breathe. Just hold on now," I pleaded. I shook my head and ordered sharply, "Don't you dare go doing this to us!"

He opened his eyes and looked up at me, "Leo…dead." He gasped out weakly, as Don entered the room.

"No Master, no" I shook my head in disagreement, "I'm sure Leo's alive, he is just being held captive and we will get him back I promise you," I hastened to tell him, hoping like hell that he heard me.

Don was checking for a pulse, his quick scowl assured me that he didn't like what he'd found so far. "Raph help me do CPR."

I assisted Don for a bit but Mike came in carrying a mug full of the tea and I did my best to make sure, Splinter got a mouthful or two into him while helping Don where I could.

I didn't like the fact that Splinter didn't seem to be responding to any of this, he ought to be showing some sign of things easing up, or off. But there wasn't any of that.

"Dammit Sensei …" I yelled at him, wanting him to fight, instead of growing weaker by the second.

TBC