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boxfullaturtles · 10 days ago

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First Bad Things Happen Bingo Post!! - Gave Up Too Soon

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What was supposed to be just a normal pizza run became so much more dangerous than it should have been. Raph defended his brothers as best he could, but in the end it wasn't enough. There were just too many of them. The snapper could only watch as his brothers were picked off.

One.

By.

One.

Until it was just him.

They had turned their guns on him the second Donnie was forced unconscious for struggling the most. Leo and Mikey stared up at him with panic-striken looks in their eyes. He couldn't look at them back. He had failed. They were all going to die or be put through hell. He dropped his hands to his sides and glared at the roof like this was all its fault. He flinched when Leo's attempt to scream was cut off. Mikey sobbed.

Raph had failed.

His mind offered him memories of times when he hadn't failed, but it didn't help.

He looked back up.

Leo, Donnie, and Mikey were thrown into cages. Raph didn't move. The darkly-dressed humans fired their guns, hitting him in multiple places. He didn't flinch that time. He didn't have the strength to do anything but wait for the tranquilizers to set in. Right before he passed out, one single thought flashed through his head:

You gave up too soon. You still could have saved them...

He pushed it away.

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Raph woke up and couldn't breath. Couldn't move. And all he could see was feet. His large tail twitched.

"It's awake, sir," someone high above said.

Raph faintly remembered he should be high above them. Not the other way around. Where were his brothers? They had to be in here, right? Surely these people wouldn't separate them?

"Good," a different someone said. "Everyone leave for a minute."

He heard shuffling. The feet retreated. He turned his head up as much as he could -- a few inches -- and glared. The human smirked down at him confidently.

"Chained down and you still fight?" they sounded genuinely curious.

Raph growled, a low and guttural thing. They tilted their head and began circling him. He moved the barest amount he could to try and keep them in his sight. When they arrived back in front of him, they leaned down.

You have so much power, so much potential. You could protect us all...

"You seem very strong," they whispered, tsking. "What could we use you for...? Collection missions, perhaps? How about--"

He interrupted with a jerk of his head side to side in a confident 'No, I won't do anything for you', or might he say over-confident from what happened next? They gave a soft hum he could barely hear before raising their foot and slamming his head down. The metal thing around his beak dug into his chin. It hurt. He tried pushing up, but he was still too weak from the sedatives.

They didn't move for three minutes. Or maybe it was more? Less? Why wasn't there a clock in here? The second they took their foot off, he lunged. They stumbled back with a quick flash of nervousness crossing their face.

Heh. Good.

"You don't have a choice," they reminded him, turning to the others he had kicked out and nodding.

One brave soul stepped back through the door. They stood ramrod straight when the first human murmured something -- probably an order -- to them. Raph couldn't hear what they were saying, and, frankly, didn't want to.

The younger one nodded. The older one left. Raph spiraled.

"I have to, um..." the young guy gulped, trailing off. "... transport you to a new room..."

The snapper showed no acknowledgement. Only following the poor guy with his eyes as best he could.

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Leo woke and was surrounded. He blearily glanced around at all the humans. Something in his mind snapped right then and he remembered:

These people had kidnapped him and his brothers.

He snarled, attacking whoever was closest. Some screamed. Some ran. He didn't hear any of it. The person in his grip was staring up at him with utterly terrified eyes.

Heh. Good.

"Back-up in room G-24 immediately!"

Leo snapped his head around to where the voice had come from. He threw the person under him and launched himself at the one that had sent the warning. They whimpered.

Before the slider could drop them and run, something blunt was pressed against his neck and he screamed. Hands were grabbing in the same instant, shoving him down to the cold floor.

If you would just listen. If you would just cooperate... We could help each other.

Something even colder was put around his neck. It kinda felt like a collar, however that sounded. The chains clipped to it were pulled to keep him place. His hands were bound as well. He squeezed out hisses and curses before they were cut off with a muzzle forced over his beak. A thick one with an even thicker steel holder(???) laid over the top and two pinching things on either side of his face to hold it all together.

"That's better," someone sighed with relief. "Which one do you think is going to be the most violent?"

Someone else hummed in thought. "My money's on that purple one."

Wait.

Purple one?

Donnie...?

Leo maneuvered himself to make it easier for him to scooch backward into a corner. His brothers were here, but not with him. This wasn't good at all. The slider curled his legs closer to his plastron and tried to remember what had happened. It wasn't hard.

Raph had just frozen. He couldn't understand why. There had still been a chance when he had stopped. He growled and narrowed his eyes, coming up with the truth behind this whole thing:

Raph, their big brother, had frozen when there was still a chance. It was his fault they had all been captured and separated.

Leo would get out and force Raph to explain the second they all got home.

All this was his fault.

A hand entered his peripheral vision, extended like the human behind it wanted him to take it. He huffed and ignored it.

So they spoke. "We just need to get you to a new room then leave you alone. Okay?"

He still refused to take the hand. They sighed. He was grabbed roughly, hauled up, and dragged away to Pizza Supreme knows where.

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Donnie woke up and immediately registered the metal things keeping him bound to the chair. He squirmed against them, but couldn't do much. They were on his legs, his wrists, his plastron, and even his head. His ankles were bound and chained separately.

He made the mistake of glancing upwards.

He had to do a double-take.

A very, very (that's two verys) big needle was pointed straight at his head at a point he could barely see it.

It was too big.

Lend us your mind, give us your strength... don't be so selfish...

He whimpered, trying in vain to squirm again.

"Stop!" he cried. "Please!"

Whatever machine the needle was connected to started to buzz. The needle only got closer.

"No!" he squeezed his eyes shut and tears leaked out. "Please, just stop!"

They or it didn't. He felt it pierce his skin and he shivered. Then a second, smaller needle entered. Then the third smallest did. He could practically feel them messing around with his brain now. It was not a good feeling.

He let out a wail, hoping one of his brothers would hear and come for him. Take him out of this horrid place.

None of them showed up.

More tears spilled from his eyes and landed in his lap and in-between his legs.

The needles retracted themselves a second later.

Donnie let the relief pass through him even as blood from the hole dripped down his face. At least the needles were gone.

He wondered what his brothers were going through... Hopefully nothing worse than that hell.

The blood was wiped away suddenly. He gasped at the cold of whatever was being used. The thing around his head was removed and a bandage replaced it. He silently thanked whoever was doing this. He heard a light laugh.

"Shh," someone murmured. "Relax yourself, you're too tense."

He sighed and obeyed, reopening his eyes. The woman in front of him had a kind enough face. He swallowed the churr building in his throat anyway. She might've been among the group to kidnap him and his brothers in the first place after all.

The woman vanished from his line of sight and the -- cushioned, he just now realized -- metal binds released hisses of air before coming undone. He was free! Unfortunately, when he tried to stand, the woman came back and pushed him back down.

"Not yet, little mutant," she practically cooed. "Wait for your transporters to get here."

Transporters?

He didn't like the sound of that.

As if on cue, four men entered the room and lifted him up to carry him off.

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Mikey woke up and had never felt more uncomfortable in his entire life. He felt the cold floor against his face as his consciousness came back. He couldn't move his arms. Jerking his head to try and raise it was worse with whatever was around it, and his ankles were heavy.

He couldn't remember how he got here. Didn't it have something to do with Raph? No... maybe Leo? Was he here because Leo did something stupid again?

Wait.

Where were his brothers? Were they okay?

He didn't dare try moving again.

Seriously, where were his brothers?

Pressure on his shell broke him from the thoughts. He really wished he could see what was on him.

You will save so many lives... If we work together...

This situation was hopeless, he knew that much. He was bound to the floor, something on his shell, and most importantly, he couldn't move. He closed his eyes for a second and let the tears come before daring to open them again.

He wanted to go home.

Fortunately, he would get to. Soon. But not soon enough.

Time seemed to vanish after just a few minutes in this damn position. His arms had never hurt more in his entire life. The door opened and he didn't hear it, absorbed in his own thoughts. He only realized when whatever had been on his ankles fell away with a clang.

The thing keeping his arms above his head loosened. The tubes buried underneath his skin slid out and he felt such overwhelming relief. His neck was freed next and sucked in a raspy breath. Oh thank Pizza Supreme.

He tried to voice his thanks, but all that came out was a weak cough.

"Don't try to speak," the human commanded, voice much more gravely than he expected. "After I remove these tubes from your shell, you are to be moved elsewhere."

Mikey let that register. Slowly, over many minutes, he felt the pressure previously over his entire shell receded until it was gone. At least he had time to think. Wonder where his brothers were again. Would the new room be with them? He sure hoped so... If he had to go any longer without seeing his brothers, he might just explode.

Before he knew it, he was being hauled up and out the door elsewhere.

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Raph didn't know how long he had been here. It could have been five minutes or five hours before the door opened and a familiar shape was unceremoniously pushed in. They scrambled to their feet despite hands being bound as well and tried to sprint out the door before it closed, but it didn't work and they were kicked backwards. Raph caught a glimpse of their face when it happened. It was the red stripes that made him realize who this was.

It was Leo.

Raph widened his eyes and let out a rumble from deep in his throat to get his brother's attention.

It worked.

Leo spun around and widened his eyes right back. They both noticed each other's muzzles at the same time and narrowed their eyes. Then Leo went over and dropped down right next to Raph. The slider leaned his head against Raph's arm and let out a sound resembling a sigh.

Raph watched Leo close his eyes before feeling a tug in the recesses of his mind. Smart.

He closed his eyes too and tugged back. The mind meld connected as soon as he did, letting him and his brother meet halfway. Leo's glowing form took in shaky breaths and faced him with a smirk.

"Welcome to the only place we can talk because of those assholes!" he quipped.

Raph would have reprimanded him on language had it not been for how glad he was. "At least."

"Now before I ask my less important question, do you happen to know where Donnie and Mikey are?" Leo asked.

Raph hesitated. Admitting it felt like a betrayal. "...No. I-I didn't seem them."

Leo looked away for a second, squeezing his eyes shut, then reopening them and looking back up at his big brother. "Why'd you freeze?"

Raph startled. Weird question... "What are you talking about?"

"Why'd you freeze?" Leo repeated. "There was still a chance to escape from that, Raphael."

Oh.

That's what this is about.

Raph hung his head. "I don't know."

"Why?" Leo repeated much more fiercely.

"Because it already felt like I had failed, I don't know!" Raph threw his hands up.

"You don't normally give up that soon," Leo commented.

Raph didn't want to be interrogated right now. That thought clearly didn't get past Leo, because he got right in front of him and put his hands on the older's shoulders. Raph sank down into a sort of halfhearted sitting position and Leo followed him down. Then the connection broke and the two were brought back into their bodies. Neither expected the scene before them: Donnie curled up in the oldest's lap with Mikey tucked into his shell.

Donnie seemed to notice Raph was staring at him, since he cracked an eye open. "H-hey."

Raph wanted to tear the muzzle off so he could speak so badly. But he couldn't.

Donnie curled closer and lifted his hands to sign.

'Mind meld?'

Raph nodded.

'Can Mikey and I join?'

Donnie shrunk in on himself timidly. Raph did his best to smile with his eyes and nodded again.

But they wouldn't get to try.

Mikey poked his head out of his shell right as the door opened. Raph let out a warning growl.

"This is it," the man who had talked with Raph earlier said. "Now put me down."

"No," a rough, familiar, sent-from-heaven voice huffed.

Mikey popped completely from his shell. "Barry!"

Two thuds echoed from the door, probably from the man hitting the wall and falling to floor unconscious. Mikey scrambled to get up and to reach their crazy, ex-villain half-dad. Leo's displeasure was clear on his face, but Raph knew he wouldn't complain about being rescued.

Donnie used the snapper to get himself to his feet and helped Mikey up too. The goatman finally came further into the room. Mikey practically squealed and launched himself into Draxum's arms with happy sobs.

Raph and Leo exchanged a glance. Now would be a really good time to be able to get up. Raph's tail moved subconsciously. Right, it had been unbound as well. Mikey's smaller one was wagging faster than a dog's would at seeing their owners back home after a long, boring day.

Draxum eventually eased Mikey away from him and turned his focus onto the two brothers who couldn't get up.

"Purple! Orange!"

Donnie basically melted to the floor when Splinter came running in. The rat immediately wrapped his arms around his son and Donnie sobbed openly into his robe. Splinter tried to get Mikey to join, but the box turtle didn't move.

"Dad," Leo rasped the second the muzzle fell away from his face. "How'd you find us so soon?"

Splinter hesitated. "Donatello offered me a device that keeps track of where you four have been that he had connected to trackers," he paused. "I found it...hard to say no."

"He put--"

Splinter gave Leo a look and the slider broke off. Draxum freed Raph of his muzzle and it clattered to the floor in pieces. Splinter glanced at each of his sons in turn, Donnie still clinging to him, with confidence drawn over his face. They were safe. They were all safe and wouldn't get hurt again while he was alive.

"Let us go home," he whispered. "my family."

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Based on these drawings

The card:

The tags:

@boxfullaturtles - for the drawings; hopefully i did a good enough job of describing what they were going through in those drawings lol; and I know Donnie's might be a bit fast paced too

@badthingshappenbingo

AO3 Link

#chewing on this like a good meal #delicious oh i do enjoy a good round of unethical experiments #and saved by the dads!!#really liked the juxtaposition of the horror being experienced and how kind the caretakers were #well some of the caretakers lol #poor raphie he tries but he's just a kid #long post #tw torture #tw blood

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