Raphael

*"Raphael's got the most attitude on the team"*

-Theme Song

**Raphael**, aka **Raph**, is a member of the Ninja Turtles.

He is a mutant Red-Eared Slider turtle who is the muscles of the Ninja Turtles and the second oldest of his brothers. As the muscles of the team, he has anger issues, lacks in patience, and is the most violent of his brothers, which are all qualities that affect his Ninjutsu skills. Even though those those qualities concern his brothers, Splinter, and his loved-ones, he also has a soft side for his loved-ones and his pets, such as Spike and Chompy Picasso. Wearing a red bandanna that represents his anger and strength, he wields a pair of twin Sais as his signature weapon of choice. He is in love with Y'Gythgba/ Mona Lisa. He has a rivalry with Leonardo (brotherly), Xever Montes/ Fishface, Ivan Steranko/ Rocksteady, Vic/ Spider Bytez, Chong/ Spy-Roach and The Pharaoh. Raphael debuts in Devastation.

## Backstory

Fifteen years ago, Hamato Yoshi had suffered from the loss of both his wife, Tang Shen, and his daughter, Hamato Miwa, by the hands of Oroku Saki after a fire that took place in the Hamato Dojo in Tokyo, Japan one night. Since Yoshi had lost everything on that night, he fled to New York City to start a new life, which was the place that Tang Shen wanted to move to with Yoshi and Miwa. One day in New York, Hamato Yoshi went to a pet shop and bought four baby turtles. As he was leaving from the pet shop to head back home, he bumps past a strange man in the streets. Yoshi had bad vibes about this man and decided to follow him, leading him into an alley.

That was where he saw the man meeting up with a group of men that were identical in appearance to him. As they gathered around, one of the men was seen holding what seemed to be a canister with a weird, green substance. But then the meeting was interrupted when Yoshi accidentally steps on a rat that was passing by him, causing him to blow his cover. The group of men spotted him and so a fight occurs when Hamato Yoshi tries to defend himself from the men. During the fight, the canister falls on both Yoshi and the four baby turtles, causing the substance to spill and mutates all five of them.

With the ooze coming in contact with them, Hamato Yoshi mutates into a humanoid brown rat, which was the last animal he came in contact with before his mutation. In the other hand, the four red-eared slider turtles mutate into humanoid versions of themselves. Due to their new mutant forms, they fled from the surface and moved into the Sewers so that they could live there. The five mutants move in an abandoned subway station, which they now call home. Hamato Yoshi, now adopting the nickname of "Splinter" becomes the adoptive father of the mutant turtles and names them all after his four Renaissance Italian artists. One of the turtles was named Raphael, named after the Renaissance Italian artist, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbin. At some point while Splinter started to raise the turtles, he introduces them into the ways of Ninjutsu in order for them to become the new ninjas of his family's clan, The Hamato Clan. During their training, Raphael was given a red bandanna and a pair of twin Sais as his signature weapon of choice. One day when Raphael was wandering around the Sewers, he rescued a baby turtle that was flushed down the toilet into the Sewers. After rescuing the little guy, he was given the name of Spike and became Raph's companion.