Author's Note – I have abandoned the other story because it was so long ago that I do not know where I was going with it, and it was pretty awful. So I am starting a new one to hopefully have a cohesive story with a driving plot. I'm not sure how long I will make it but we will just see as we go along. This story is called 'A New Start', and it aims to follow the story of the turtles from Raph's perspective. The brothers have stumbled upon a ruined Krang ship and something lurks inside, what comes next is something the brothers could have never foreseen. Just before you begin reading just know that on the side there will be a bracket with either a "M, L, D or R", these correspond to the turtles and they will only be used when I want to make it clear which brother is talking, and anything written in brackets is what Raph is thinking, I hope you enjoy and make it to the end, Happy reading and let the fun begin. :)
A New Start
All was silent in the lair, nothing but the quiet sound of Raph on the punching bag echoed around the room. It had been a few hours since the turtles had last gone out and Raph was becoming restless, no amount of punching was curing his need to get out. Raph landed one final punch and let out a sigh of frustration and boredom.
"If I have to spend one more minute in this place I'm going to throw myself off a roof".
Leo and Donnie were huddled up around the coffee table, marking areas on a map and crossing off sections they had already searched.
(L) "Well maybe if you helped instead of just standing around we could get this done faster".
"Nah I'm not into all that nerd stuff, and why did you have to Mikey out to look for it, I am more capable than he is and I'm sick of being stuck in here".
(D) "Stop whining you sound like a child; we only have a few spots left anyway".
Raph let out another agitated sigh and resumed his punching.
(D) You see anything, Mike".
"Na-da dude".
Leo and Donnie let out a synchronized sigh of annoyance, they looked back down at the map and Donnie pointed to the last spot.
(D) "Ok head up 315 W 17th Street, I've linked it to your T-Phone, it should be there".
"On it dude".
Donnie leaned back against the couch and put his hand over his face in frustration, Leo placed a hand on his shoulder and lightly squeezed.
"Don't worry about it Don, I'm sure it will be there".
"Yeah but there is still the high probability that it isn't, maybe the Krang already got to it. We could really learn a lot from that ship, especially in finding out what they are up to".
(R) "God who's whining now genius".
Donnie gave an agitated look at Raph from under his arm and then sat back up to look at the map. He grabbed his T-phone.
"Mikey are you there yet".
"Almost dude, give me like another minute".
(R) "Ugggghh, see if you had just sent me I would have already been there".
(D) "Raph in this situation we are not looking for speed, we are looking for someone who can get around and hide easily if the Krang are there, and in your case, you do not fit that category at all".
"HEY, I can be just as sneaky as Mikey".
Donnie and Leo give each other a look. They look back at Raph and shake their heads disappointingly.
"Whatever, I don't need your opinion because I know I'm right".
(M) "Ok, dudes I'm here".
(D) "Do you see anything ".
There is a long pause, they wait for him to respond but they continue waiting. Raph walks up to Donnie and snatches the T-Phone from his hand.
"Oi Mikey did you find anything or not, I'M SICK OF WAITING FOR YOUR SLOW AS…..".
Donnie snatches the T-phone back and rolls his eyes at Raph.
"Did you find anything, Mikey"?
They continue to wait and no response follows.
Leo grabs the phone from Donnie and paces towards the entrance.
"Mikey can you hear us".
Still no response ensues.
(L) "Grab your things we need to go find him; something might have happened".
(D) "It'll be quicker if we take the shell razor".
(L) "Right let's go".
[25 minutes later]
The shell razor slowly comes to a halt, the lights flick off and the brothers step out onto the street. They look around for any sign of Mikey but find nothing.
(R) "God it's like he's disappeared, surely we would have seen something broken by now".
Leo elbows him and walks further up the street, the others follow behind him. After a minute of walking Mikey comes running out of a side street screaming. An aggressive rat slowly chases after him, jumping at his heels trying to bite him. Leo has a look of confusion; Donnie chooses to check something on his T-Phone and Raph has his arms crossed and a face of rage fitted on his face. Raph uncrosses his arms and walks angrily towards Mikey. Mikey stops directly in front of Raph, looking guiltily up at him. The rat stands by Mikey's foot and nibs him. Mikey jumps up and screams. Raph can feel the anger rising in him and he kicks the rat away, it lands on the pavement and runs away.
"MIKEY WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, TELL ME WE DID NOT JUST DRIVE ALL THE WAY OUT HERE BECAUSE OF A RAT".
"No Raph you didn't drive all the way out here because of a rat, are you stupid or something man".
Raph glares at Mikey and then punches him in the arm.
"Then why didn't you answer".
"I did, you guys stopped responding".
(D) "hmmmm, I think something is interfering with our phones. . . MAYBE IT'S THE KRANG SHIP, it must be for some reason putting out an interfering signal and that's why our radios aren't working".
(L) "Well where is it, Mikey did you find anything".
(M) "Of course, I'm the best".
Mikey poses confidently, standing in that position for a few seconds.
(R) "WELL GET MOVING NUMBNUT".
(M) "Heh, right sorry, follow me".
Mikey walks off taking giant steps as he does, Raph rolls his eyes and follows after him. They walk down the side street that Mikey had run out of. Mikey takes another five steps, stopping in his tracks and pointing to an empty area of grass.
"Ta-da".
The three brothers look around confused, Raph could feel his face getting hot, he was becoming more irritated by the minute.
(L) "Mikey where is the Krang ship, you said you were taking us to it".
"And I did, it's right here".
Raph pinches the bridge of his nose with his fingers and lets out a sigh.
"Mikey, imma give you two seconds to tell us where the ship is or I'm going to personally, BURY YOU SIX FEET UNDER THIS FLOOR".
"Dude chill it's right here".
Raph looks at Mikey for a good five seconds and then marches towards him. Leo and Donnie hold him back as he tries to grab at Mikey.
"I'M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR YOUR GAMES MIKEY".
(L) "Raph just cool it".
Leo pushes him back towards the street and points to it.
(L) "Go cool off before you do something stupid".
Raph balls his hands into fists and storms off back the way they came, kicking a trash can as he does.
(D) "Ok Mikey is there something we aren't getting".
"Dude just watch this".
Mikey picks up a stick and pokes it at nothing, suddenly a purple light flashes for the few seconds that the stick is in contact with it, revealing the destroyed Krang ship, but disappears when Mikey removes the stick. The two brothers are stunned by what they see and Donnie takes the stick from Mikey. He places it where he thought he saw a flat surface and the krang ship comes back into view.
(D) "Holy molly how did they do this, I mean cloak all of this".
They look around and find that the surrounding area is completely trashed, bits of the floor has been removed from the impact of the ship and bits of dirt and metal are scattered everywhere. Donnie removes the stick and everything returns to normal.
(D) "Fascinating it's almost like they are using a hologram to hide the destruction of the Krang ship, that must be the reason why we have never been able to find one before. Mikey how did you find this".
"Heh, I kind of ran into it".
Donnie places the stick back on the ship. He pulls up his flashlight and shines it into the ship.
"There's dead Krang everywhere in here, the impact must have instantly killed them".
(M) "Aww poor little dudes, didn't know what hit them".
(L) "Well I do, Donnie, look".
Donnie walks to the front of the ship, lodged in the ship is a basketball-sized meteorite. The meteorite is almost completely cracked in half and is almost entirely inside the ship.
(D) "Wow this thing must have been travelling extremely fast, especially to cause that kind of damage, no wonder they died".
Donnie walks back around to the side and tries to squeeze himself inside, but he is too tall and only manages to get half his body in. He removes himself and sighs. He takes a few second's to think and then spins around to Mikey. Mikey is touching the meteorite with one of his fingers, tracing the indents of its surface, when he spins to look at Donnie".
"What"?
Leo and Donnie try to push Mikey into the ship but he pushes away, using the door frame as his support.
(M) "NO WAY DUDE, THERE'S PROBABLY ALIENS OR SOMETHING IN THERE".
(D) "Mikey the Krang are aliens and look they're all dead, now just get in there and have a look around".
"I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE KRANG DUDES, I'm talking about squirrelanoids".
(L) "Mikey that was a one-time thing, now come on we need to find out what the Krang are planning".
Mikey shakes his brothers off of him.
"Fine, alright alright I'll go, but you owe me pizza bro".
Mikey turns on his flashlight and squeezes himself into the ship, he looks around and finds nothing of interest, just a bunch of exposed wires and broken shards of metal. As he goes to take a step he feels something squishy under his foot. Looking down he see's Krang guts under his foot. Mikey screams and tries to scrape the guts off of his foot.
"EW, EW, EW SO GROSS DUDE".
(L) "Mikey what's wrong".
"I stepped on one of those squishy guys and now his brains are totally all over my foot, gross man".
(D) "Mikey do you see anything".
Mikey looks around and see's something blue hiding behind a metal panel, he rips off the panel and finds a giant blue novel strapped to the hidden compartment and an equally large briefcase next to it. He pulls both items out and exits the Krang ship. He shows the book to Donnie but holds onto the briefcase. Donnie opens the novel and finds an entire bestiary of Krang's homeworld creatures.
"Well this isn't entirely helpful, but I guess interesting".
(L) "Mike what's in the briefcase, open it up".
Mikey lays the briefcase on the floor and flips the latches open, inside is a jar full of medium-sized black beetles. Mikey picks up the jar and closely examines the beetles, pointing to their abdomen.
"Hey Don, doesn't that look like Mutagen to you".
Donnie takes the jar and looks closely.
"I think your right, that is definitely mutagen".
(L) "Well that isn't concerning at all, Krang has little beetles filled with mutagen, who knows what they use them for".
Donnie hands the jar back to Mikey and flips open the bestiary.
"Here look I found them, let's head back to the shell razor so I can read up on them, don't want to be here when the Krang finally show up".
Raph has made his way back to the group as they start to leave, Mikey get's an idea and a grin spreads across his face. Mikey hides the jar behind his back and slowly approaches Raph.
"Hey Raph, whatcha doing".
(L) "Mikey".
(R) "I'm doing none of your business that's what".
(M) "OK, ok, cool, cool, think fast".
Mikey tosses the jar to Raph and he catches it without thinking.
(R) "MIKEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING"!
Raph looks down at the jar, the beetles catching his eye. He feels his blood run cold and his skin coming up in goosebumps. Raph lets out a girly scream and chucks the jar away from him. It smashes to the ground and the beetles run wild.
(L & D) "MIKEY"!
(D) "MIKEY THOSE BUGS ARE FULL OF MUTAGEN, WHY WOULD YOU GIVE IT TO RAPH".
(L) "Quick we have to kill them; we can't let any get away".
The brothers begin squishing all the beetles, Raph on the other hand slowly backs away as the bugs run rampant across the floor. His skin feels like it's crawling with bugs, he scratches himself to relieve the sensation. It takes around a minute for all of the beetles to be killed. Mikey lets out a relieved sigh at the end and stands proudly at his accomplishment.
"We did a good job".
Donnie stares angrily at Mikey, marching towards him with the novel. Donnie smacks him in the back of the head with the novel.
"Good job, GOOD JOB, WE JUST LOST EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM MIKEY, WHAT IF ONE OF US GOT BIT, WE WOULD HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIX IT".
"You have the book".
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT"!
(R) "Good going stupid".
(M) "Hey, you can't talk you're the one who dropped the jar".
"YOU KNOW I HATE BUGS"!
(M) "THEY WERE IN A JAR"!
Raph balls up his fists and runs at Mikey ready to beat the living hell out of him, Leo steps in between them and pushes Raph back.
"I get he messed up, but beating the hell out of him isn't going to change that".
(R) "IT MIGHT, MAYBE HE'LL GROW A BRAIN"!
"It isn't going to help".
(R) "let me do it and we'll find out".
"No just chill".
"Stop telling me to chill out Leo, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF HIM, HE IS ALWAYS MESSING EVERYTHING UP AND NEVER TAKES RESPONSIBILITY OR GET'S PUNISHED FOR IT".
"Just leave it, we have enough to deal with".
"you know what I'm done with all of you".
Raph turns around and heads back out to the street. Leo tells the others to head back, Donnie glares at Mikey and then follows behind Leo. Mikey looks back at the ship and takes the stick off to make the ship invisible again and then sulks behind his brothers as they walk back. When they get back to the shell razor Raph continues to walk off.
(L) "Raph where are you going".
"I'll find my own way home, or do I need your permission".
"No, you don't, just don't do something stupid".
"Can't do something more stupid than Mikey".
(L) "Hey lay off him, we all make mistakes and that is how we learn".
"he couldn't learn anything if he tried".
Leo watches as Raph walks away and then gets into the shell razor.
[25 minutes later]
The shell razor pulls back into the lair and Leo brings it to a complete stop, the brothers get out, Donnie still looking down reading the book.
(L) "Did you find anything".
(M) "Yeah, are there any more creepy bugs I can throw at Raph".
Donnie rolls his eyes and flips back to a specific page.
"This one right here was what was in the jar we found, emphasis on the was. They call it the mind bug apparently, these things feast on mutagen as their main food source, mainly living underground, but sometimes coming above ground to look for a host. I'm not sure what they mean because the rest of the page is empty and some information at the bottom has been ripped out, I'm also unsure of why this is in English, I would have thought it would have been in their language".
(L) "Host, what the hell does that mean".
(M) "Dude it's obvious, they're called mind bugs for a reason, they must get into your brain and control you, ooooooooooo".
They both look at him with frowned expressions and then walk inside, Donnie heads to his lab, Leo heads to the dojo and Mikey heads to the couch to switch on the gaming station.
[10 minutes later]
Leo walks out from the dojo and looks around, he walks to Raph's door and opens it, completely empty. He shuts it and walks out towards the lounge room.
"Mikey has Raph come back yet".
"Na-da dude".
(L) *Sigh*
Leo heads up to Donnie's lab and knocks on the door, Donnie looks up from his desk and waves Leo in.
"Hey Don have you seen Raph".
"He's fine Leo, like he's said before he can take care of himself, I'm sure he's just punching a wall or kicking a can or something".
"He's usually back by now".
Donnie doesn't respond.
"Can you see where he's at"?
Donnie looks up with an annoyed expression on his face.
"Leo, you don't need to know where everyone is all the time, he is perfectly capable to take care of himself, and his temper isn't exactly something you wanna deal with right now".
"I know, but as the leader. . .".
Donnie cuts him off with his hand.
"Look if he doesn't show up in another hour, then I'll tell you where he is, ok".
Leo turns and leaves the lab, he looks over to the entrance and starts to slowly walk towards it, he hears some footsteps behind him and comes to a stop. He knows exactly who's behind him.
"Sensei I was just going for a walk".
"A walk"?
Leo spins around to face his Sensei.
"Fine, I was going out to look for Raph".
"My son, your brother is quite capable of taking care of himself and with his temper, it is better to just let him think through his thoughts".
"But he shouldn't be out there alone, especially with the Krang running around".
"My son, a person's problem is their problem alone, why waste all the effort and energy making it yours, he is the one upset and angry, not you, so don't go out looking for him only to feel the same as him".
"But Sensei".
"Go do something, distract your mind from him my son".
"Hai Sensei".
[1 hour and 26 minutes later]
Raph's mind is silent, he has no thoughts left to think and his anger has drained his energy. One step after another he closes in on the lair, it is about another 2-minute walk until he arrives and all he can hear is the drip of the pipes, his footsteps and the slow flow of sewer water. Every few steps however he swears he can hear a slight scuddling noise behind him, but every time he turns around the noise continues and he sees nothing. Regardless Raph continues, trying his best to ignore the scuddling noise.
[2 minutes later]
Raph finally makes it to the lair and all he wants to do is sleep, so he heads straight to his room, not taking notice that none of his brothers were around. Just as Raph grabs the door handle he hears his father's voice behind him.
"Raphael".
Raph turns around and his father steadily walks up to him.
"You have something to tell me, my son".
"Not really".
"Raphael"!
"What do you want from me Sensei, it's their fault, not mine".
"Blaming others isn't an excuse for your poor behaviour".
"Leo told you".
He says nothing.
"Well, Leo doesn't know my side of the story".
"So why don't you tell me your side of the story".
[4 minutes later]
"So you see it's not my fault, Mikey should know better".
"It may not have been your fault, but the way you behaved after the incident was a wrongful action, like Leonardo had said, this is how we learn".
"But it's Mikey"?
"Yes, I know it is Mikey but Raphael he is your brother, not a teammate, you need to start controlling your anger or it will get the better of you and you will do something you cannot take back, no matter how hard you may want to".
"I will Sensei".
"I don't believe you; you have said this many times before and nothing has changed".
Splinter turns his back on Raph and begins to walk around, stopping a few steps and then looking over his shoulder at Raph.
"You don't want to end up liked Shredder, my son, he was lost in his anger and doing so, lost everyone who considered him family".
Splinter then walked off into the dojo, leaving Raph to stand quietly in the hallway. He thought about what his Sensei had said, replaying the last bit over and over in his mind. (You don't want to end up like shredder my son, end up like shredder, I'm nothing like that metal head). Raph opens the door and walks in, he closes it behind him and jumps in his bed, he lays with his arm under his neck, staring at the dark ceiling and playing that one sentence over and over again, (You don't want to end up like shredder my son).
"I won't. . . right".
Raph had had enough of thinking, he looked over at his clock and read the time 9:59, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He woke a few hours later and read the time 8:26, he slowly lifted himself out of bed until his feet were on the floor and he was sitting on the side of the bed. He went to stretch and felt a slight pain jolt through his left arm, causing him to immediately bring it down.
"Owww, what the heck".
He walked over and flicked his light on, he looked down at his arm and saw a ping-pong-sized bug bite on the upper section of his arm, with the middle of the bite being a large hole that went into his arm. Raph could feel his stomach clenching at the sight of it. He walked out of his door and headed to the kitchen; he saw Donnie sitting and having a coffee.
"Hey Don, where do you keep the bug spray".
Donnie looked at Raph and pointed to his lab.
"Yeah, I know in there, where genius"?
"First shelf in the medical cabinet".
Raph rolled his eyes and headed to the lab, he found the cabinet and started to go through all the bottles and pills.
"Panadol, flea repellent, disinfectant, bug bite spray".
Raph heard a pair of footsteps come in behind him and he knew exactly who it was, Leo.
"Can I help you"?
"Yes, you can start by telling me where the hell you've been".
Raph stood up with the bottle in hand.
"Well if you mean in the last few hours, in my room sleeping".
He sprayed the stuff on his arm, giving off a slight tingling sensation and then tightly wrapped a bandage around the bite.
"You know what I mean".
"Leo I don't need to tell you where I've been, you wanna know why".
Raph walked up to Leo and got right in his face.
"BECAUSE I'M NOT 5".
He then purposefully bumped into Leo and walked out of the lab; he heard the footsteps continue to follow behind him.
"I was worried that is all".
"Well, look I'm perfectly fine".
"What about the thing on your arm".
"It's a bug bite, Leo, we live in the sewers what do you expect".
Leo stopped and then went towards the dojo, Raph turned around and crossed his arms.
"Going to Splinter I see, is that going to be your new thing, constantly snitching on every little thing I do that isn't up to your perfect standards".
Leo spun around.
"No it's not Raph, I talk to Splinter to find out what I can do with you, you're impossible to talk to sometimes and I get nowhere with you".
"You act more like our father than Splinter does".
"Well for someone of your age, you act like a child".
"You're the childish one Leo, you're our leader, not our teacher".
"For god sake, Raph just listen to yourself".
"ENOUGH"!
Splinter comes walking out of the dojo with a disappointed look on his face, he stands in the middle of both of them.
"THIS BICKERING MUST COME TO AN END, NOW"!
(R) "But Sensei he's…".
"Sush, I won't hear a word of it, you two are brothers, you don't always have to act like it but I still expect you to show each other respect some of the time".
(R) "Respect. . . yeah like that's going to happen, he is just so perfect and expects everyone else to be like him".
"That isn't at all what I think".
"Well, that's how you act".
"I said enough, this bickering is a waste of time, are you even aware of why you are angry at each other".
The two remain silent, they both try to think of a good enough reason but can only come up with childish reasons.
(L) "No Sensei, we don't have a good reason".
"Exactly my point, end this pointless argument".
They both bow to their Sensei.
(L & R) "Hai Sensei".
Splinter turns around and heads back to the dojo, Raph glares at Leo and he stares back with a blank expression.
"He's right you know".
Raph rolls his eyes and heads for the entrance; Leo grabs his shoulder only for Raph to flick his hand off.
"Raph just wait".
"I'll be back later; I'm done with you".
This chapter is a bit boring I know but I just need something to go off of and this is that, I tried to make it lengthy but something fun to read at the same time. I'm not sure if that was something I achieved but I hope if any person reads this, they enjoyed it and want a second chapter, feel free to leave me a comment if you have any improvements I can make or general feedback, happy reading and I hope to see you next time, see ya. :)