Let Me Take Your Pain Away (Pt. 1)
Missions don’t always go as planned, they rarely do, actually. Thing is, when they don’t, someone might pay the price with their lifes.
But they won’t let that be Mikey’s case.
Based on @cokowiii’s ‘Just Another Day AU’
Part two here
Part three here
Supply runs are hard, it’s a slow process that tends to make easy objectives out of them, threatening to take the whole community down. Even now, after they’ve figured out how to be mostly self-sustainable, it’s very much indispensable, and each time they have to go farther and farther away in search of resources. However, every now and then, they’ll find something they overlooked in the past; this time, they seem to have found a goldmine (and a nearby one at that).
- “How come we’re only seeing it now? It’s super close.” – They were reviewing the last details of his mission. It’s nothing new and -thankfully- it shouldn’t take long: just a couple days, a week if he’s unlucky.
- “According to my research, something in there exploded, blowing up the roof and exposing the structure to the elements. The question is ‘why?’ though that I do not know, dear brother.” -Donnies eyes were shining, exited with the possibilities- “So be careful, extremely so. Now, regrettably, my current project is time-sensitive, so you go there first and scout the place. Then, if you deem it so, we’ll send a raid team.”
- “Yes, yes. I’ve done this before Dee. I’m a badass mystic warrior, I can handle it.”
- “One thing does not equate the other.”
- “Are you jealous because I’m stronger than you?”
- “Offended gasp, Michelangelo, you did not just-”
- “Cali!” - Mikey had interrupted and discarded his older brother in favour of giving a hug to his beloved husband. – “What are you doing here?”
- “A. I hate you. B. I asked him to come, as I need his help for one last test before you go.” - Answered Donnie.
- “Donieeeee.” - whining would stop neither of them.
- “Oh, well, maybe I wouldn’t have to do this if you didn’t murder my babies as a past time.” – retorted Donnie, though there was no heat behind his words.
- “It’s not on purpose, I swear.” -and it isn’t. Sometimes, his powers just aren’t compatible with his brother’s tech, making the trackers or monitors glitch or straight up die.
- “C’mon, Mikey, better safe than sorry. Let’s get this shit over with.” – persuaded Calimari as he drags a weightless Mikey to a chair. It was quick, have Cali take his vital signs and compare them with the ones on the monitor, the GPS function wasn’t so easy to test, and they’d asses it on the run.
- “Well, that’s it. You can go now. Don’t set on fire anything that isn’t a Krang.”
- “I’ll try.” – And then he stared at Cali - “Mari~”
- “What?”
- “I love you so, so much.” – A chaste kiss follows, but then their eyes don’t meet like usual; instead, Mikey is looking at their hands. Cali know he’s angsting about his death. Again.
The sight made his heart clench, so he got close in order to lick Mikey’s cheek. In response, the other let go, outraged, trying to clean his face with his hand, then proceeded to snatch the robe on Cali’s shoulders with a big, dumb smile on his face. – “Off I go.”
How he wishes he could go with him.
He marches back into the med bay, knowing that he has better things to do than wallow in self-pity. Leo and his team will be back soon, which always means an influx in patients. When they arrive, it’s shown that this time there is no exception, so he bussies himself with the work in front of him… Until he can’t.
It was sudden, from one second to the next. Something cold burned his hand, painful enough to make him drop the papers he was holding. Seeing what was wrong only made it worse. He saw the markings in his left hand. The white, form-fitting, and warm chain now was cold, loose, and had black patches all over it.
- “Cali,” -started Leo, worried tone, and getting closer to him – “what’s-” -the resistance leader froze in place, eyes wide open, but a second later he was leaving the place in a frenzy, pale and almost shoving people out of his way.
Cali figures there’s only one person he’d go to: Donnie.
- “Doctor Calimari, we need-.” - He didn’t get to hear what the request was. When he got to the exit, he could still see Leo at the end of the corridor, but he wasn’t fast enough to catch him, not anymore.
Still, he made a run for Donnie’s lab: his most likely location -and he will beat him if he’s not there-. He kept going even when he could barely breath, his muscles ached and his sight was going dark on the sides. Even so, he made it to the lab, but he couldn’t talk with how much his lungs burned and how he was about to pass out. Mikey’s remaining brothers were there, ignoring him completely.
Listening to them, he gathers that they will leave to search Mikey, who they lost contact with. Given the situation, they might agree to take him. Nonetheless, he won’t risk being told to fuck off. Thus, he plans accordingly.
Cali, waited for the right moment to hide into one of the trucks, from his place in the trunks he can’t see anything, although it shouldn’t take long for them to leave.
- “Oh, sweet Galileo, I finally get to-”
- “Donnie.”
- “Mikey, yes. Of course.” – He sets his horrid music on before flooring it, effectively launching them out of the base.
- “Puta.” – Thankfully, the noise drowned his voice. It’s even better when Leo turns turn the speaker off shortly after.
- “I just need you to keep an eye on it in case the signal comes back.” - Cali’s listening attentively, trying to collect as much information as he can.
- “Let me see if I get this straight: you two were talking, then ‘boom’, then nothing?”
- “Then you arrived, yes.”
Then they stayed silent, and Cali was left with his thoughts. He remembered talking with Mikey about their shared chains, he was right, this is agony.
- “Do you think he’s fine?” – asked Leonardo
- “Yes.”
- “But Cali’s chains-”
- “Just focus on the tablet. We’ll arrive soon.”
- “Okay…” – A pause – “Are you sure it’s working?”
- “Yes ‘Nardo, now stop talking.”
- “But it says Cali’s behind us.”
- “You put a tracker on me!?” – Shit.
- “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Cali!” - God damn it, he planned on staying hidden until they found Mikey. – “You know Donnie puts trackers on everyone! Where are you?”
- “Not everyone.” – Maybe they’ll start fighting and forget about him.
- “I stand corrected, he puts trackers on everyone he cares about. I know this, you know this, everyone does.” – He was blinded by a sudden light. – “What were you thinking?”
- “Get closer and I’m biting your hand off.”
- “Good thing It’s a spare.”
- “It’s not. Leo, stop. I won’t fix it.”
- “Donnie, turn this thing around.”
- “Don’t you dare. Fucking hell, get you priorities straight, I won’t drop dead for going outside. Mikey needs me, or would you rather waste time, see if he dies!? Then what.” - He was screaming at the top of his lungs, as he pierced the trunk’s floor with his claws. They wouldn’t go back, they fucking couldn’t. He’d throw them out of the window first.
- “Okay. First, this -to quote you- “thing” it’s a state-of-the-art automotive engineering, have some respect. Second, the Doc’s right, we don’t know what condition Mikey’s in, its better if he’s with us.”
Leo retreated back into the copilot’s seat without talking, and after a minute Cali crawled out of the trunk into the backseats. With actual light, he could see the chain again, it was mostly black now.
None of them talked after that. Until - “The signal’s back”- said Leo, as he paled even more – “Can’t this thing go faster?”
- “Why.” – demanded Donnie, looking at the screen while driving at full speed.
- “Watch the road!”
- “Gimme that.” – Cali snatched the tablet from Leo’s trembling hands, and started reading… tachypnoea and tachycardia, but low blood pressure and low temperature… Is he bleeding out? Fuck, uh, Leo said ‘boom, then nothing’… So, traumatic injuries (fractures, stabbing), blast injuries (brain, eyes, ears, lungs, abdomen). What else, burns? Maybe he’s just really dehydrated, that might do too.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud ringtone.
- “Hey, Honey Bunny.” - Those two are disgusting.
- “Leo? Where are you?”
- “In an impromptu mission? We think Mikey’s in trouble.” – That’s downplaying it.
- “Shit, I won’t take long then. Do you know where Cali is?”
- “In Colombia?”
- “What? No. They say he ran out after you.” – A brief pause followed - “he’s with you.”
- “I didn’t know, Yui. We can’t go back now.”
- “Leo.”
- “I know, I’m sorry. I’ll pass him over,” -he passed his communicator to Cali, who turned off the speaker.
As he talked, a screech filled the air, and he dropped the device.
- “Cali, are you okay? What’s going on?”
- “I’m fine.”
- “Are you sure? I can go there, I’ll prepare the another car.”
- “I said I’m fine, stop fussing. Donnie just ran over something.”
- “Fine...” – Cali could hear his brother thumping his tail over the phone. - “Do me a favour, stick close to Leo, okay?” - He grunted in response. – “And tell him that, if anything happens to you, I’m filing for divorce.”
- “Sounds like a plan.”
- “Fuck you, but be careful.”
- “Yeah, yeah.”
- “Cali, you better come back, okay? Preferably soon, you left a mess behind. Also, call me if you need help, and send me a message every hour to let me know you’re okay.”
- “Whatever, bye.”
- “Bye…” -And he hung up.
- “Congrats on the divorce.” - Declared Cali as he returned the communicator.
- “He didn’t say that.” – Answered Leo, defensive. Cali didn’t answer, just stared at the damp stain in Leonardo’s clothes.
- “Are you bleeding?”
- “No? Ah, I forgot.” - Fucking idiot.
- “Hah? You ‘forgot’!? Y entonces qué, ¿mágicamente va a desaparecer?” - He went back into the trunk to take out a first aid kit – “Jueputa, porqué son así, se creen indestructibles, estúpidos es lo que son. El otro es igualito.” – Then he started disinfecting, stitching, and bandaging. - “Estate quieto.” – It pained him that the chain was getting in the way.
For a while after that either reorganized the first aid kit or stared at the screen with Mikey’s vitals.
- “We’re here.” – Announced Donnie, restless. Before stepping out of the car he threw a gun at Cali – “The tracker’s not working, but his last location is fifteen meters south-east from here.” – Donnie started flying, and Leo followed promptly, carrying Cali.
By now, saying that the chain was loose was an overstatement. Cali feared that if relaxed his grip, it would simply fall off. So, he held onto it.
Mikey’s ‘last location’ was barren, with nothing living on sight. Thus, they took different paths in an attempt to cover more ground. Donnie remained on the air, while Leo went underground with Cali.
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