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Description

Raphael’s Story – Visions in Red part 3

                After awakening at the Foot Headquarters, Raph is met by their leader, the Shredder. He tries to fight back, to escape, but is easily defeated once more. While humiliating him, the Shredder analyzes his fighting style as a derivative of the Foot Clan’s own, and eventually pins him to the ground before finally revealing his plan. After studying him and his teammates for days, he knows what they are planning, however. he doesn’t want to stop them, but he does want the blackmail material they are collecting on Stockman for himself.

                Raphael refuses at first, then a bound April is brought in to leverage him into service. She, however, argues that she would rather die than be used as their pawn, and the Shredder changes tactics, instead showing Raphael images of Casey’s family and threatening their lives if he doesn’t cooperate. Both he and April reluctantly agree to help and explain their plan to him. Wanting to gain control of Stockman, and through him a foothold in New York, Shredder orders Raphael to murder Nobody (the only member of their group that the Foot Clan was unable to capture), but, he is able to stall for time, insisting that the vigilante will contact them, in time.

                Every night Raph is sent out on patrol, hoping that Nobody will interact with him, and, every day, he is put through rigorous training with the other Foot Clan ninjas. In the midst of all this, he manages to steal a cell phone which April jailbreaks to begin searching through the NYPD database, both of them are worried and trying to locate Casey’s body, wanting to give him a proper burial. When they can’t turn up any clues, the pair begins to contemplate searching through the local dump, but April hits upon an idea and, instead searches for John Doe’s admitted into the hospital (fitting Casey’s description and suffering from stab wounds).

                They get a hit almost immediately and Raph wastes no time confirming his identitiy. Of course this only provides further leverage for the Foot Clan who are now paying for Casey’s medical recovery as well as threatening his and his family’s life. Bowing his head to this sad situation he manages to pass the information on to Casey’s mother, she and his cousin Angel are reunited with him and Raph is able to feel some level of accomplishment from that.

                A few weeks later, he is finally contacted by Nobody who sets up a meeting for the following week. Raphael starts to break under the pressure, Nobody is a jerk, but a good man at the end of the day, yet, he doesn’t want to watch his best friend die. Desperate and alone, he goes and visits Casey, only to find his cousin there tending to him. He manages to convince her to leave the lights off so that she doesn’t discover what he is. They talk, exchange stories and, in a roundabout way, she starts to understand what he’s going through.

                She tells him a story about her cousin and knows that he would never want a friend to tarnish themselves just to keep him safe. Angel admits that she feels the same way and encourages Raphael to follow his conscience.

                Some days later, Raph has his meeting with Nobody, and, after obtaining the location of the information Nobody has been collecting on Stockman, resolves to kill him. They fight and the building catches fire, crumbling to the ground as they continue trading blows. Finally the building collapses and they are nowhere to be seen in the rubble.

                The Foot Clan presume him dead, but, out of honor (and partly because April had proven herself most useful as a computer technician), they agree to keep April safe, as a servant of their clan. Meanwhile, both Nobody and Raph are holed up in a new hideout, licking their wounds after the fight. Hurt, but very much alive (Raphael had left several notes around the city to clue the man in about his plan to fake their deaths and then staged the fight to make it look convincing), they begin to plan their retaliation.

Description

Raphael’s Story – Visions in Red part 3

                After awakening at the Foot Headquarters, Raph is met by their leader, the Shredder. He tries to fight back, to escape, but is easily defeated once more. While humiliating him, the Shredder analyzes his fighting style as a derivative of the Foot Clan’s own, and eventually pins him to the ground before finally revealing his plan. After studying him and his teammates for days, he knows what they are planning, however. he doesn’t want to stop them, but he does want the blackmail material they are collecting on Stockman for himself.

                Raphael refuses at first, then a bound April is brought in to leverage him into service. She, however, argues that she would rather die than be used as their pawn, and the Shredder changes tactics, instead showing Raphael images of Casey’s family and threatening their lives if he doesn’t cooperate. Both he and April reluctantly agree to help and explain their plan to him. Wanting to gain control of Stockman, and through him a foothold in New York, Shredder orders Raphael to murder Nobody (the only member of their group that the Foot Clan was unable to capture), but, he is able to stall for time, insisting that the vigilante will contact them, in time.

                Every night Raph is sent out on patrol, hoping that Nobody will interact with him, and, every day, he is put through rigorous training with the other Foot Clan ninjas. In the midst of all this, he manages to steal a cell phone which April jailbreaks to begin searching through the NYPD database, both of them are worried and trying to locate Casey’s body, wanting to give him a proper burial. When they can’t turn up any clues, the pair begins to contemplate searching through the local dump, but April hits upon an idea and, instead searches for John Doe’s admitted into the hospital (fitting Casey’s description and suffering from stab wounds).

                They get a hit almost immediately and Raph wastes no time confirming his identitiy. Of course this only provides further leverage for the Foot Clan who are now paying for Casey’s medical recovery as well as threatening his and his family’s life. Bowing his head to this sad situation he manages to pass the information on to Casey’s mother, she and his cousin Angel are reunited with him and Raph is able to feel some level of accomplishment from that.

                A few weeks later, he is finally contacted by Nobody who sets up a meeting for the following week. Raphael starts to break under the pressure, Nobody is a jerk, but a good man at the end of the day, yet, he doesn’t want to watch his best friend die. Desperate and alone, he goes and visits Casey, only to find his cousin there tending to him. He manages to convince her to leave the lights off so that she doesn’t discover what he is. They talk, exchange stories and, in a roundabout way, she starts to understand what he’s going through.

                She tells him a story about her cousin and knows that he would never want a friend to tarnish themselves just to keep him safe. Angel admits that she feels the same way and encourages Raphael to follow his conscience.

                Some days later, Raph has his meeting with Nobody, and, after obtaining the location of the information Nobody has been collecting on Stockman, resolves to kill him. They fight and the building catches fire, crumbling to the ground as they continue trading blows. Finally the building collapses and they are nowhere to be seen in the rubble.

                The Foot Clan presume him dead, but, out of honor (and partly because April had proven herself most useful as a computer technician), they agree to keep April safe, as a servant of their clan. Meanwhile, both Nobody and Raph are holed up in a new hideout, licking their wounds after the fight. Hurt, but very much alive (Raphael had left several notes around the city to clue the man in about his plan to fake their deaths and then staged the fight to make it look convincing), they begin to plan their retaliation.