"Calming His Storm" ~Book 1: Gathering Clouds~ (TMNT 2012 Fanfiction; RaphxOC )

Chapter 01: Scraped

Something didn't feel right to Raph. This was the third possible Krang storehouse of the night and they had found nothing so far. The one on Third Street had only been a warehouse for wharf equipment, and then the one near the grocery store had contained old Krang bot remnants, but no mutagen stores. He huffed and looked out over the rooftops into the New York skyline. Even though they were up on buildings all the time, the view was still pretty cool.

If only the people of this city knew how much we risk our necks for them every day.

Raph listened to the sirens of distant police cars and the laughter of people walking on the main street a few blocks over. Usually, Raph and his brothers stayed closer to the more remote parts of the city if they could. Crowds of people weren't really their style. But tonight, this warehouse brought them closer into the more flashy parts of New York. Raph took this moment to breathe in the flashes of colors that were a rare sight for someone who lived underground.

Starting to get antsy, Raph slid his sai out of its sheath and glanced over at Leo. His leader crouched next to him, peering into the third story of the warehouse that they stood on through a skylight.

"Do you see anything?" Raph asked quietly, not expecting a reply.

Leo shook his head but continued to stare downwards into the darkness. Raph sighed and shifted his weight to relieve his tired muscles. Hearing scuffling behind him, he glared over his shoulder and growled. Mikey, his younger brother, was dangling from a ledge on the next building trying to pet some pigeons.

"Mikey! What did I tell you about touching random animals?? Get over here and stop attracting so much attention." Raph barked.

Mikey jerked at Raph's exclamation, lost his footing and tumbled down onto a fire-escape below him. He sat up and rubbed his head, looking very displeased.

"Hey! I was just trying to pet him! Stanley likes to be petted." Mikey pouted as he jumped from the fire-escape and landed back onto the roof with Raph and Leo.

"You named him??"

"Well, uh, YEAH! Stanley follows me around whenever we're out looking for mutagen hangout spots. It gets sooooo boring and he helps to pass the time. He's a cool dude. He even sits on my hand sometimes when I feed him!" Mikey held up his hands to show Raph the process.

Raph rolled his eyes at Mikey's lack of caution. Dangling over the side like that could reveal them to the streets below and everyone would see that they have mutant turtles living among them.

Now that would be just great.

A tap on his knee brought Raphs attention back to the skylight.

"I think that there might actually be Krang here. I saw movement on the stairwell. You guys ready?" Leo asked, taking out his Katanas from his sheath.

Raph nodded, tensing his muscles in preparation and situated his sais between his fingers. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Mikey had done the same with his nunchakus. They leaped into the skylight, landing softly on the concrete floor.

As Leo noiselessly disappeared into the second-floor stairwell, Raph dashed into the shadows near the entrance with Mikey and together they waited for Leo to give them the signal. A few moments later, a reflected flash of light from Leo's sword told them to join him. They moved through the doorway and onto an unwalled stairwell which descended into the middle of a large warehouse. Looking about him as he went down, Raph recognized a familiar green glow coming from the corner of the room. Around twenty canisters of mutagen were sitting in neat rows and were guarded by three Krang Bots. Making a complete sweep, he counted thirty-five Krang in all. Some were sitting at computers that were haphazardly installed in the walls, while most were sitting around, looking bored.