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Change is The Only Constant: Introduction[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][/COLOR][/center][hr]
[COLOR=E11919][u]Philadelphia, PA; March 12th, 2017; 03:25[/u][/color]
Raphael slid the manhole cover away and climbed out into the dark alleyway. He crouched there for a moment and looked up and down the alley to make sure there was no one around before he slide the metal cover back over the manhole and straightened up. Seeing that there was no one around, he reached behind the nearby dumpster and pulled out the gear he dropped there earlier when he was on patrol with his brothers: a hockey mask Casey had given him before they moved to Philadelphia from New York, a Yankees ballcap April had given him for his sixteenth birthday, and a long coat he had found abandoned on the street. He slipped his gear on and made for the fire escape toward the end of the alley, leaping up and pulling the ladder down with ease.

On the roof of the dingy brick building left to fester like one of many in the turtles’ new home, Raph looked out over the city and took it all in. It was still different to him, much more different than living in New York. Perhaps the thing that was the most different and hardest was the fact April and Casey had to stay behind in New York to finish college and could only occasionally visit them, even though he’d never admit it affected him negatively. Instead, he just dealt with it and continued on doing the same thing night after night: training exercises with Master Splinter, patrol with his brothers, and then sneaking out to do his own patrol in the gear he hid near the manhole that led to his new home. Some nights the routine helped, other nights it drove him crazy. Why were they still hiding away in the sewers when there were more and more mutants popping up in the world like the X-Men? Like Spider-Man? Superman? Maybe some of them weren’t full blown mutants or metahumans, or whatever the news was calling them nowadays, but there were mutants out there helping people instead of hiding. Others like them who weren’t sticking to the shadows and operating in secret, no more than an urban legend.

Master Splinter had told him it was because the Foot Clan was hunting them, that while there may be mutants out in public, others like them, that they were still in danger by being revealed because of their origins. The Mutagen, from Stock Gen. Between the Foot Clan and the researchers at Stock Gen, it seemed like everyone wanted Raph and his brothers and father, probably to cut open and study more than anything else. What about the other mutanimals in New York? He wondered if they were hunted down and rounded up like everyone tried to do with the turtles and Splinter. Most likely. Hey might be in a lab right now being subjected to who knows what. Even Apec and his gang, as tough as they were, were probably hunted down by Stock Gen and captured. He felt a slight pang in chest thinking about the innocents in Apec’s little community being rounded up when really Apec and his enforcers were the only ones who deserved to be hunted down like the animals they acted like. One of his calloused green fingers found the scar from the bullet Apec had put into his leg during a fight once. He had gotten lucky Apec missed his shot, but Apec wouldn’t be lucky if they ever ran into each other again. 

Same with The Shredder. He may have bested him in battle last time and nearly killed him, but he was training harder than ever now and would be ready for the leader of the Foot. The scars on his body were still fresh, not nearly as fresh as the scars to his ego though. Those would probably never heal, unless he got another shot at fighting the old ninja. And that would only happen if the Foot found them again or they took the fight to the Foot. If the ninja clan did find his clan first, he would fight tooth and nail to protect his brothers and make sure he paid back every last bit of what he owed their leader.

The young mutant was pulled from his thoughts of beating the Shredder in battle by a commotion below him in the alleyway adjacent to where he had surfaced. He peered down from his vantage point and watched as three men cornered a fourth along the alley, brandishing weapons of various types. It looked like one was swinging a pipe around while another brandished a switchblade, and the third massaged his knuckles.

[i][color=E11919]”Probably wearing brass knuckles,”[/color][/i] Raph thought to himself as he descended on the scene, unheard and unseen.

The first thug raised his pipe at the cornered man, but before he could swing his weapon, three shuriken sunk into his arm. He yelped and dropped the weapon. Before he could do more than that, Raph had swept his legs and landed a punch to the chest. The thug fell the ground, winded and clutching his chest. In a fluid motion, the young ninja leapt over the first thug and brought his knee into the head of the thug holding the knife. As they both hit the ground, Raphael rolled toward the third thug as the second one rolled around holding his head. As he came up from his roll, he brought his head straight up into the chin of the last thug standing. As his head snapped back from Raphael’s headbutt, the ninja landed a blow to his solar plexus, sending him reeling like the other two.

[color=E11919]”You ok,”[/color] Raphael asked as he turned away from the thugs rolling on the ground to look at the man they cornered.

“I - I’m fine… Thank you.”

[color=E11919]”Don’t mention it. Just get outta here.”[/color]

“Ri- right,” the would-be victim stammered before running off.

Raphael swept his eyes over the thugs before heading down the alley the opposite way the other man had run and began his own patrol. He wasn’t going to stand on rooftops and hide in the shadows forever. He had to be out here, helping people as much as he could. In a way, he felt obligated to help anyone he could.