I do not own the TMNT.

Chapter Twenty; Lessons

Nora glanced nervously between the blinds of her apartment just as another police cruiser drove quietly past. It has been two days since Peter had been taken from her and the police had found nothing. They had no leads as to where either her husband or her son might be and to make matters worse Kyle had also vanished without a word.

As soon as the police car passed two men emerged from the shadows; one of them clearly relieving the other of his watch. As one of the men walked off the light from the streetlight temporarily caught his skin and revealed a large purple dragon on his large bare arm. It was terrifying, but all Nora could do was tighten her grip on her husband's old thirty-two and hope the police, or someone, would find her family.

...

"Follow baldy."

"Right." Nightwatcher looked up to see Turtle Titan race across the rooftops, following their target. Behind Mikey flapped a brand new, blood red cape. When Raph had asked why K was humoring his super-hero fetish she'd smacked his helmet hard enough to make his ears ring before explaining that there was more than one identity that needed to be protected.

For his part, Nightwatcher stay hidden in the shadows. He wasn't going to mess things up for this woman anymore than he already had. Leaving things to chance hadn't turned out so good for him lately; first he'd gotten that kid kidnapped, then he'd gotten Mikey shot, and if that wasn't enough he'd let both Mikey and K get nearly blown to bits. That wasn't including all the stupid things he'd done alone since the explosion.

Now he was going to make sure all the loose ends were tied up, first thing was to alert the police to the gang punks watching the Carlton lady, after that he'd catch up with Mikey and go from there…

Of course sooner or later he was going to have to get back to the lair and punch Leo good and hard in the snout for being right all these years. Apparently rushing in half-cocked wasn't half as easy to get away with when the person doing all the rushing is responsible.

It wasn't long before the next patrol car came by. As the Dragons had done each time before, the gang member stepped back into the shadows to avoid being seen. Beneath his helmet Raph smirked. The guy might be using the shadows to his advantage, but he was no ninja.

...

Once again Nora watched as the man on the street disappeared into the alley. She swallowed, one finger playing over the safety on her husband's gun.

The police car rolled slowly past, the officers probably doing their best to look for trouble behind the shaded windows of their car as it approached the building. Nora had met the officers. They were good people who were trying their best, but in this neighborhood strangers had to keep moving or they became targets, even the police.

No, strike that, especially the cops. Ever since the Initiates started up attacking cops had become more popular than mugging pretty rich girls. At first the cops had been willing to fight back, but when the number of gang members being killed had risen so had the accusations of racism and discrimination from different interest groups. The papers and news channels reported that police shootings were going up, but details as to why were conveniently left out. Now police officers were being attacked on the streets and at the station.

Nora couldn't blame them for their reluctance to stop.

But they did stop. Right in front of the alley when suddenly the man who was watching Nora's store came flying out of the alley… no, certainly not flying, he was thrown! The Purple Dragon crashed into the police car's windshield and lay still as the officers stopped and jumped out of either side, guns drawn. One of them released his gun with one hand and spoke into the radio on his shoulder while the other went to investigate the alley the Purple Dragon had been thrown from. It was clear that he didn't find anything there.

...

"Where are you?" Raph asked.

"Over on Lairdman island. Looks like the Purple Dragon took over the Foot- I mean; they took someone else's old hideout." Turtle Titan answered over the radio.

Raph nodded as he watched another cop car pull up in front of the electronics shop. Now that they had proof the place was still being watched they had decided it was worth having a standing guard there in addition to the police drive-by. That should be enough to keep the lady safe. "I'm on my way." Raph reported. "Nightwatcher out."

So Raphie boy has learned a little bit more about responsibility and why his older brother annoys him so much.

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