The heat woke him in the middle of the night. A fierce burning that the eleven-year-old hot-headed brother couldn't take. He rolled over, in a furious attempt to go back to sleep, but the weird burning sensation only got stronger.
Raphael sat up angrily, rubbing his eyes. I better not have caught that fever Mikey's had. The second-oldest turtle quietly slipped away from his brothers, then looking back at them.
Mikey was taking up as much space as humanly (turtlely) possible, his arm flopped over Leo's shell. Leo was sound asleep on his stomach, using his arms as a pillow. In contrast to Mikey's sprawling, Donnie was curled up as small as possible, his fingers grazing a plant. It looked like the plant was curling around Donnie's hand, but Raph decided it was just the shadows.
The burning flared, and Raph hissed quietly, stumbling out of the shared room. So what if Leo bit his head off later about leaving? He felt like if he didn't get away right then, he would explode.
Raph gasped as pain blazed on his right arm. He clawed at it, but the burning sensation did not fade.
Suddenly the entire world changed colors. Mostly, it was blue, but several different shades. He looked towards the wall that his brothers were behind and did a double-take.
I CAN SEE THEM, HOW CAN I SEE THEM, THERE IS A WALL THERE!?!
They were red, and yellow, and orange, and green, and a little blue as well.
Raph frowned, and looked over at where Splinter's room was.
Laying asleep, was Splinter, the same colors as his brothers.
"What did Donnie call this?" Raph asked himself. "Heat vision? Wait, no, thermal vision. How am I doing this?" His arm burned again, and he hissed, clutching his shoulder.
He pulled his hand back as his vision returned to normal, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Raph was holding fire. In his hand.
And somehow.... It felt right. The pain in his shoulder ceased, and Raph looked. In his signature red color was a flame, like a candle without the candle. A lighter red other flames that swirled a little down his arm.
Impossible. Crazy. Not supposed to be happening.
And yet it was. And it clicked. He wasn't supposed to be able to do this, but here he was, holding fire in his palm.
Raph was the protecter. He'd known this for years.
But now he had a new way to protect his family. To protect his brothers. It was unique, and powerful, and it was his.