(Four Months Later)
Laughter bubbled up from deep inside of the red-masked turtle as he landed out of a triple flip onto the slightly slanted surface of a rooftop, and slid easily to the second level. He threw a glance over his shoulder, and picked out the shadowy silhouette of one of his brothers. Judging by the Tarzan-esque yell that followed, he had no question of whom it was.
Raphael gave the orange-masked turtle a menacing look as Mike nimbly landed beside him. "You know we are supposed to be workin' here," he said accusingly.
"You didn't see my loft on that jump! It was a thing of beauty! It was—"
Raphael stretched to clap a hand over his younger brother's mouth. "It was too loud, bonehead. Fearless is gonna ream you out when we get home."
Michelangelo shrugged in an unconcerned fashion, and Raphael had a hard time pretending to be truly irritated with him. It felt so good to run and be free on the long-missed rooftop playground, that even Mike's minor annoyances couldn't ruin his night.
Raphael didn't hear the approach of his next brother, and only became aware of Leonardo as he was vaulting onto the tiled surface beside them. The blue-masked turtle fixed Mike with a testy look and shook his head.
"Work and play can co-exist peacefully, Mike, but that was overboard." Leonardo only spared the younger turtle a momentary lecture, before focusing on the ground below them.
Raphael noticed his older brother's hand hovering near the ear piece for his radio, hesitating. "What are we waiting on, Leo? Where's Donny?"
"He's got a better vantage point from his position, so I told him to stay put and direct us. There are a few of them down there, and we need time to cover them correctly. Don's going to let me know when they're in the perfect spot."
"No way a bunch of kids have anything on us, Leo," Raphael scoffed.
"That isn't the point, Raph. As it stands right now, they could easily scatter. We want to box them in, so there's no opportunity for any of them to escape."
"True that." Mike grinned. "It's annoying when the bad guys get away."
Raphael settled in to wait, though he would rather have already been in motion. He watched Leonardo rather than the street level, looking for some signal that his brother was tensing, or getting ready to move.
Silence prevailed as they lingered, and the red-masked turtle switched from watching Leo to planning his own dismount from the building. The paranoia of reinjuring his left leg was fading, but part of Raphael felt like he might be looking more readily before he leaped in the future. A little advance strategy never hurt anyone.
"How many?" Leonardo's soft voice cut the silence like a knife. "Good. We'll corral them that direction. Keep an eye on things for a couple more minutes, then head down to join us."
Raphael felt like pumping his fist, but he reined in his enthusiasm with a grin.
Leonardo nodded at him and Michelangelo. "Let's go. We're cutting behind them so they won't have a chance to backtrack. There's an alley and a dead-end up ahead. If we can block the side street, they'll have nowhere left to go."
"Sounds like a plan, Fearless." Raphael gripped the pommels of his sais, although he didn't expect to actually use them on some insignificant street punks. It's almost a pity. What's it gonna take to rustle up a worthwhile fight around here?
Leonardo began to descend and Mike moved to follow him, leaving Raphael to bring up the rear. He swung down from the roof with careful precision, a stark contrast to the reckless abandon to which he'd given way in the past. He sprung off a window ledge to reach a ladder hanging off a fire escape, and shimmied further down before making the leap to the street.
His skin tingled as he heard the voices of their quarry nearby. "Is someone gonna volunteer for alley duty?" Raphael whispered.
"Donny is the closest one to it," Leo returned. "He'll make sure it's blocked off. All we have to do is focus on herding them toward the dead end."
"No sweat, Leo," Raphael replied.
They remained motionless around the side of the building, until the group of youth they'd been trailing for a few blocks started filtering past them. With another nod from the blue-masked turtle, they fanned out behind the teenagers, intent on not allowing any of them a chance to bolt. They'd arrived too late to stop the assault on two innocent people that night, but not too late to clean up after the thugs who'd then proceeded to rip their victims off.
Raphael's eyes narrowed in the wan moonlight as he noticed one of the young men toss what appeared to be a ring up in the air, and catch it in his outstretched palm.
"That dude was way too ugly to marry her anyway." The kid snickered. "We just did that girl a huge favor. Maybe we beat some sense into her."
The red-masked turtle growled under his breath. We're about to beat some sense into your sorry tails. He watched Leonardo out of the corner of his eye, making no move toward accosting the teenagers until he saw his brother's gait picking up. Show time.
Two of the boys were already turning and taking notice of Leonardo, so Raphael felt free to speak up. "Hey, fellas, we got a little problem here I think. You've got some stuff that doesn't belong to you, and you really hurt some people tonight. That don't sit well with us."
"Back off, man, you don't know who you're dealing with!" the young man with the ring spat contemptuously at Leonardo as he calmly approached.
In the low light, it was clear the teenagers had yet to realize whom they were actually facing down, and Raphael was determined to enjoy the introduction.
"You don't know who you're dealing with," Leonardo corrected. "We don't need to fight, but you're not going anywhere either."
"Says who, shorty?" the same teen demanded. Without any warning the young man took a swing at Leonardo, which the oldest turtle easily evaded without even moving his feet.
The blue-masked turtle caught the teenager by the wrist and spun him around so that the boy's back was crushed against his plastron. "Like I said, you're not going anywhere."
There was a surge toward them as the young men came to the defense of their spokesman, and Raphael was only too happy to meet them. He ducked under the reach of a tire iron, and caught the youth behind the legs to trip him up. The teen had been in the process of swinging the tire iron a second time, and gasped in surprise as he hurtled toward the earth. Raphael plucked his weapon out of mid-air with one hand, and nicked a glancing blow off the boy's jaw with the other. He used the proper amount of force to knock him out, without breaking anything in the process.
He turned to look for his brothers, and smirked as he watched Michelangelo spin a guy around using nothing but his pony-tail. Five of the thirteen were already on the ground, and the rest of them didn't appear so interested in fighting anymore. As they took flight straight toward the dead-end, Raphael caught Leonardo's eye with a feral grin.
They caught up with the runners in seconds, and Raphael seamlessly warded off the last-ditch effort attack of three teens at once, enjoying the exercise of avoiding their attempted blows and tiring them out. When he'd had enough of keep away, he lashed out both fists at the young men on either side of him, and snorted at the way they almost hit the ground simultaneously.
The third cringed like he was going to back down, and Raphael gave him a warning look. The boy dropped his fists in surrender, but when Raphael eased his own stance, the teen launched at him. The red-masked turtle's foot landed in his stomach before he'd even cleared the ground, and he followed it with a second blow to the teen's rib cage.
"Wrong choice, punk."
Raphael gazed around with a sense of satisfaction at the other bodies his brothers had dealt with, and grinned as Donatello trotted up to join them.
"Man. I feel gypped," the purple-masked turtle complained.
"Don't wanna hear it, Genius," Raphael replied. "You're the one who had to play the eye in the sky. It ain't our fault you were too slow."
Donatello didn't even acknowledge the comment as he drew out his cell phone. "I'll call it in."
Raphael rested his head in one hand as they waited for signs of the police arriving. It had become a standard practice of theirs to hang around a crime scene for a little while, as long as their safety permitted it, to make certain that the police picked up all their "packages."
Michelangelo was antsy, and Raphael didn't blame him for a change. Shell, I swear he just wants to get home to watch his kid sleep. Ever since Nate was born, he barely lets him out of his sight.
The announcement of approaching sirens was all the orange-masked turtle needed to hear. "Can we go?" he asked Leonardo.
"Just another minute or so," Leo soothed him.
At the first sight of police cars Leonardo motioned with his head, and all four turtles broke away from the rooftop from which they'd been watching. They picked up speed as they headed away from the scene, leaving the authorities to finish what they'd wrapped up for them. Leo was leading the pack, and when he suddenly stopped, Raphael fell back with his other brothers.
Raphael was about to ask what was up when he realized that his oldest brother had his phone pressed to his ear.
"You're what? Why didn't you just call?" Leonardo's tone rose surprisingly. "I don't see why... No, we're still around. We don't like to leave until we know they're being picked up…Maybe…Let us talk it over for a couple minutes."
As Leonardo clapped the phone shut, Donny crowded in beside him.
"Who was that, Leo?" Don asked.
"It was Kelley. He's rigged it so the local 911 operators notify him when they get a 'Phantom' call."
"How'd he get your number, Fearless?" the red-masked turtle demanded.
"I gave it to him before we left the city, Raph," Leonardo said quietly. "And he wants to see you."
Raphael squirmed uncomfortably. "I don't know, Leo. What do you think? Is it safe to trust this guy?"
Leonardo shook his head. "I'm not sure. He sounded genuine, and he told me where he was going to be waiting. Kelley said that he would hang out for an hour, and we could decide whether or not we're coming down to meet him. Mike, you could go ahead and head home, in any case."
Michelangelo shrugged. "We're already here, so let's stick together. Do you think he's on the level?"
"He stuck his neck out to help get us off the island," Donatello pointed out. "He also made the call to expedite the medical equipment we needed for Raph."
"Well, then…let's check out if he's really alone, and find out what he wants," Raphael suggested. "It'd be better than having him try to trail us all over the city, Leo."
Leonardo took a right, leading them off down another side street closer to the harbor. They waited on the outskirts of the shipyard for several minutes, watching for signs of movement on the ground. Raphael wasn't about to take any chances, even though he wanted to get home too.
When Donatello confirmed that there weren't any other heat sources present, Raphael shot a resigned look at the waiting figure of Matthew Kelley, and glanced at Leonardo.
"You want me to come, Raph?" Leo asked.
Raphael wasn't sure why he did, but he readily agreed. The two older turtles made their way to the pavement, and silently approached Kelley without any further delay. The man jerked with surprise when they appeared behind him, without a single sound to announce their arrival.
A curse leaped to Kelley's mouth before he could cut it off, and he exhaled shakily. "I didn't think you were coming."
"Sorry," Leonardo replied. "We have to be careful."
Kelley nodded, his gaze shifting to take in Raphael.
The red-masked turtle looked back at him steadily. "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, I…" Now that they were here, proper words seemed to be escaping the man. "Greg told me that you were all right, but I wanted to see you with my own eyes."
"We've got good doctors," Raph replied. "They fixed me up, and got me back on my feet."
"And back in action," Kelley stated dryly.
"I told you we'd be back, Director," Leonardo said evenly.
"Yes, you did." Matthew's eyes never left Raphael. "I'm glad you're okay. That was an intense day back at Javits, and I still feel like I didn't thank you properly. I owe all of you my life."
"Is that the only thing you need to say to us?" Raphael asked cautiously.
"Just watch your backs," Kelley warned. "I know you've done well at avoiding notice in the past, but don't start taking anything for granted." The man shifted nervously on his feet. "Ignoring what's happening under my nose isn't going to be easy. If I didn't have faith in your intentions, I wouldn't be able to simply stand by."
"But you are, right?" Raphael's tone took on an edge.
"I don't have a choice, do I? It's that or visit your mother ship. Isn't that how it goes?"
Raphael surprised himself by laughing. "I appreciate what you did too," he told the man. "I get that you don't wanna be involved, but that call you made was a lifesaver. You helped deliver me from a world of hurt, if nothing else."
"It was something I had to do," Kelley replied. "It's not right that you could put yourself in that much danger for someone else, and not get the help you deserve. I wish I could have done more."
"You did plenty," Leo said. "We're going to honor our agreement. We won't darken your doorstep, Director."
The look in Kelley's eyes was wistful for a moment, before he became impassive again. "Be careful out there. The city is just as violent as it ever was."
Leo nodded. "We are, Director. We stick together as a team."
"That's good. Thanks for meeting me – I don't want to take up a lot of your time."
Raphael sensed the man was ready to run by his changing posture.
"Go ahead," Leo urged him.
As Matthew turned, he looked over his shoulder one more time. "If I was allowed to say it, I'd tell you I'm glad you're back."
"We won't tell on you." Raphael snickered at the man's retreating form.
Leonardo patted his arm. "Let's go home."
*No...you haven't seen the last of Kelley. Not by a long shot.