#Baron Draxum arrives!

[bambiraptorx]

i found the unfinished draft for this and finally did something with it lol

[tangledinink]

Chapter Thirteen of I'm Sorry, Teenage Mutant What Now? is up! The gang journeys through the Hidden City to investigate the Battle Nexus. They journey through and investigate old memories on the way. Read it on ao3 or below the cut!

[ prev ]

"BARON DRAXUM!"

Everyone in the room winced, including Baron Draxum, who awoke with a start, sitting stark upright and snarling in response as he swayed.

"Jeez, Recruit... Love the enthusiasm, but tone it down a bit, maybe," Lieutenant bit out, rubbing his ears, still reeling from the volume of her wake-up call. Casey flushed just the tiniest bit.

"My apologies, sensei!" She cried, immediately falling into a bow, but privately she thought to herself it worked, didn't it? Nothing else that they had tried had even begun to stir the yokai, who they had found tied up and in an unconscious heap inside his own underground lab. They had arrived expecting to help transport the Hamato children to their main hideout, certain they would be, of course, apprehended neatly by Draxum by now... but evidently this was not the case.

"What in the world happened?" The Lieutenant voiced Casey's own thoughts aloud, holding his hands out exasperatedly. "You said you were going to get the Hamatos."

"Yes, well, things were a bit more complicated than I anticipated..." Draxum hissed, gritting his teeth.

"You said you could handle them on your own! We offered to send you back-up, but you didn't want to wait! Surely four children didn't overpower you--"

"They did not overpower me," Draxum snapped, turning to snarl as he dragged himself back up to his feet. "Some damned witch placed a protection spell on them," he seethed, absolutely bristling. "I can't touch them..." He grit his teeth. "... I will simply have to account for this in the future..."

Lieutenant and Brute seemed somewhat unimpressed, Cassandra noted, glancing at them from the corners of her eyes as the two exchanged looks.

"Yes, well," Lieutenant mused, his hands on his hips. "I'm sure there will be other opportunities to kidnap children in the future. However, the Dark Armor remains our priority. Come on. We've wasted enough time here, and we have a new lead to investigate..."

"Don't worry. You'll get 'em next time," Brute tried to encourage, patting Draxum's shoulders, to which he snarled and batted his hands away, grumbling to himself as he stalked off after them, discussing as they went.

Cassandra sighed softly, rolling her shoulders back and forth a few times before she trailed after her three superiors.

Yes.... The Dark Armor was the priority.

---

The collective shriek of their group was cut off by a loud thud, immediately followed by a chorus of groans. Okay, so, travel by teleportation was... a little disorientating. The fact that most of them currently sucked at staying on their own two damn feet didn't help matters. Some more than others.

"Sorry!" Raph immediately bit out, wriggling from atop the heap, an awkward chuckle escaping him. 

"Raph, my wonderful brother," Leo grit out. "You know I love you dearly. But I'm really gonna need you to stop knocking us all over like bowling pins."

"Well, look, you try walkin' around with a giant tail you ain't used to! It's not as easy as it looks!" He defended, throwing his hands up. "I'm doin' my best over here!"

"Whoa!" Mikey effectively ended their squabble with his gasp, sitting up quickly in order to give a wild gesture. "Guys, look!"

And damn. Whoa was right.

Raph was a New Yorker, so he wasn't easy to impress. He wasn't immediately awed by big, sprawling cityscapes or towering skyscrapers, but this place was... something else. It looked somewhere between an actual city and some sort of mystic ruin, residing as 'neither' and 'both' all at the same time. The buildings themselves seemed to grow from the stone landscape, curving and sliding to match the terrain. Glowing mushrooms, crystals, and occasionally the eyes of massive statues provided brightly colored lighting, leaving the various neon signs and backlit advertisements of the city seeming pale in comparison. Street vendors, kiosks, and tents lined the bustling streets, and each and every creature making up the massive crowds was something completely alien that Raph had never seen nor imagined before. Yokai, he thought to himself. That's what April said they were called.

Rather than sharp, straight lines and confident corners, this place seemed built from jagged outlines and curving bends, looping and winding around itself as if the entire city were hanging on, clinging to itself, holding hands, nestled in between the hulking forms of unmoving stone creatures that Raph was unsure how to categorize. He didn't feel confident saying that they weren't alive after the day they had had, despite their frozen forms and their dead, unseeing eyes.

"This must be the Hidden City," Mikey said, and Leo let out a low whistle as the five of them took in the view.

"Good job, little guy. Knew you could get us here," April hummed, giving the little yellow creature they had rescued a squeeze. His tail wagged wildly in reply, snuggling up in her embrace.

"Alright, now we just gotta get to the Battle Nexus from here," Leo said with a sigh, shifting his weight onto one leg, hand on his hip as he glanced over at the yellow critter. "Any idea where that is?"

The creature chirred in response, nodding excitedly and scrambling down from April's arms in order to lead the way. Leo grinned. 

"Okay, I take back all my earlier doubts and hesitations. Bringing this guy with us was a great idea," Leo declared as the group set off.

Though the acquisition of weapons, all tucked or stowed away in backpacks or belt loops or pockets, had helped a bit, Raph had still been, admittedly, pretty nervous about entering the city, a pool of anxiety swirling around in his gut. Given the day they had had so far, he couldn't help but imagine a hoard of devious yokai dogpiling him and his siblings the moment they set foot into unknown territory. But, to his quiet surprise, no one spared them even a second glance, all seeming far too occupied with their own errands and lives to glance over at their ragtag group.

Somehow, this made Raph feel a bit better. For several reasons. He supposed that, at the very least, they didn't seem to be freaks here.

"Don't worry, Dad, we're on our way," Mikey chirped, and despite his current relief, Raph still couldn't quite understand how his little brother could be so cheerful. Mikey always amazed him with his emotional resilience. Wished he had some of that.

"Eugh, is he even gonna recognize us when we get there?" Leo said with a wince, wrinkling up his face a bit. "We look, uh... a little different than when he last saw us."

"I'm pretty sure he knows, Leo," Donnie remarked. "He's the one who put the bracelets on us in the first place. He knows." 

Raph glanced dimly down at the little golden bracelet still encircling his wrist, the red gem now seeming a bit duller somehow, and he frowned. So this little trinket was mystic all along, huh? Now that he knew, it seemed stupidly obvious. He wondered anxiously if they still worked anymore, or if they were broken forever.

"No wonder he didn't want us to take these things off," Leo muttered, looking over his own, holding his arm up to examine it. "Jeez. I can't believe he kept this a secret from us. How did we not know?"

Mikey gave a thoughtful hum. "Do you guys remember when we were really little? Before we moved? And we used to pretend we were turtles all the time?"

"Somehow I don't think that was pretend, Mikey," Donnie said with a roll of his eyes.

"That's what I'm saying!" Mikey insisted. "But you guys do remember that, right? I just... I always thought that that was just us playing a game or something, but it must have been real! So we knew at some point!"

"And then we forgot..." Donnie mumbled, tilting his head to the side thoughtfully, already obviously doing calculations in his head. 

"You guys were pretty weird when you first moved here," April remarked.

"Oh come on. How do you just forget that you're a turtle?" Leo argued, glancing over his shoulder at the others. "That seems like the kind of thing that'd stick with you."

"I dunno," Mikey shrugged. "But obviously we did!"

"You're not implyin' that Dad did somethin', are ya?" Raph questioned, narrowing his eyes, and Leo immediately huffed.

"No! Of course not!" He frowned. "It's just... I dunno. It's weird, is all. It's crazy to think about how much stuff that we just... forgot."

"Well, what do you remember?" Donnie nudged. "Like, from before the move."

"Not much," Leo admitted, scrunching up his nose. "Everything from back then is fuzzy. I don't even know where we moved from."

"I think..." Donnie hesitated a moment. "I think we moved from there."

"Where. The Hidden City?" Mikey questioned.

"No, no, back there. I mean. The sewer we were in before," Donnie pressed. "Didn't it seem... kind of familiar to you guys?"

"Well..." Raph frowned.

"Mikey! Wait!" Raph laughed, stumbling as he chased after his littlest brother. He still didn't walk with a terrible amount of grace, but he crawled like a madman, and Raph took great joy in chasing him around. Mikey did, too, giggling maniacally as he attempted to dodge the other.

Raph could feel, reaching back into the memory, that the bottoms of his feet were cold. The ground was hard beneath them, like stone. Like concrete. He remembered worrying about Mikey's knees. And, thinking back on it now, he swore he could almost hear the sound of running water in the background.

"I go’chyu!" Raph declared, grabbing Mikey, who squealed in response, wriggling against him.

Everything from back then was blurred; cobbled together like pieces of glass glued into a mosaic, appearing in his mind’s eye as a series of blotted, wrinkled images. Were they turtles or people back then? He wasn't sure. Where were they?

"I remember it was dark..." He said. "And cold a lot. The ground was stone or somethin.’"

"I remember that, too!" Mikey gasped.

"Whoa, wait!" Mikey squirmed his way out of Raph's arms again, attempting an escape, and a flare of panic flashed through him for a moment. He dove for Mikey for real this time, not playing anymore, grabbing his brother before he could get too far.

"We can't go that way, Mikey. Daddy said 's not safe yet," he explained when his brother whined in complaint, hoisting him back the way they came, his footsteps clumsy while trying to drag his brother along. "We gotta stay in these tunnels."

"And... I think I remember there being… tunnels," he continued. "Or somethin' like that. It was really big, wherever we were, but we could only go into certain places. And the rest was off-limits, ‘cause Dad said he hadn’t checked them all to make sure they were okay yet. I remember keepin' Mikey from wanderin' off."

"I remember tunnels!" Mikey exclaimed. "I remember yelling into them when we were little and listening to them echo. I remember doing it until Leo made me stop!"

"I don't remember that," Leo protested, crossing his arms.

"You did!" Mikey insisted. "You said I had to play something else because it was bothering Donnie."

"That would be in character for you," April remarked with a tiny grin. 

"Sounds like sewers to me," Donnie said with a shrug.

"Maybe," Leo conceded. "But why the hell would Dad keep us in the sewers?"

"There’s probably limited options when your kids are literally part-turtle," Raph reasoned with a grumble.

"Yeah, but abandoned sewers?" Leo pressed. "Come on. Was that really the only choice? Couldn't he have just... kept us inside or something?"

"I don't think so," Donnie said, frowning a bit, shaking his head. Leo sighed.

"Why not?"

"Leo, Dad has one of these bracelets, too," Donnie said. "Remember?"

---

The rest of their journey through the Hidden City went about the same way. One of the boys would bring up some old memory, and they'd discuss for a while, before the conversation would peter out and they'd walk in silence for a bit before the cycle started all over again. April pointed out that they had all regularly chirped and clicked and made other odd noises when she had first met them, but eventually, they grew out of it (mostly.) Raph discussed his memories of watching his younger brothers when they were very little, waiting somewhere dark and quiet for their dad to get back from wherever he was going. Donnie and Leo both remembered sleeping together as toddlers, somewhere very small and curled up, like a nest of some kind, both agreeing that it didn't quite seem like a crib or a bed. Mikey mentioned how many times he got in trouble for painting or drawing on walls when they first moved into the apartment, and how much it had upset and confused him in the beginning-- was that because their dad hadn't bothered to correct the behavior when they lived in the sewers? 

"When we first started swim team," Donnie mused, tilting his head back to stare up at the sky. "I remember sometimes, we would have contests with the other kids to see how long we could hold our breaths."

"I remember that," Leo agreed. "And we'd always win!"

"Yes, but..." Donnie hummed. "I think we probably could have won by a lot more if we wanted."

"What do you mean?" Raph questioned.

"Well," Donnie explained. "I recall, or, at least, I think I do, that… that when we first started partaking in those contests, it was... it was easy. Everyone else would have already come up to breathe, but I'd feel completely fine. I'd only come up because I had won and the contest was over. But after a while, people started being weird about it," he frowned. "To be fair, people were weird about a lot of things I did. And I will admit I didn’t always catch on, but I noticed this one,” he said, laughing dryly and giving a wave of his hands. “And at the time, I just wrote it off as one of many! Just another thing that I did that made me different from my peers. But I started coming up earlier so I'd be more... normal," he confessed. "And I'd pretend like I was out of breath when I wasn't, so people would stop looking at me like that. Or, well. People stopped looking at me like that for that particular reason. And I guess eventually I just... I got so used to pretending that it just became second nature, and I didn’t even realize I was pretending anymore."

Leo nodded slowly, looking thoughtful, his arms crossed over his chest. “Yeah… Yeah, that sounds… that sounds right, actually…”

"I remember thinking the same thing!" Raph exclaimed, his eyes wide at the realization. "Except I felt bad that all the other kids kept losin' so bad! I started pretendin' 'cause I didn't want everyone else to get discouraged, and I just did it for so long...!"

"But you're the best swimmer, Dee," Leo remarked, nudging his twin slightly with a tiny smile. "So I wouldn't be surprised if you can hold your breath the longest, too. I mean, christ, you literally have webbed fingers now."

April glanced down at her brother’s hands, noting quietly to herself that it was true. If she was being totally honest with herself, it was a bit alien to look at, so she drew her eyes back away after a moment.

"That does make sense," April hummed. "And it'd explain why you guys are so good at swim meets and stuff, too."

The other three paused, and Leo frowned a bit. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean. If you're turtles, then... obviously you're gonna be good at swimming," she reasoned with a shrug. "It makes sense. Of course you’re gonna win!"

"Mikey doesn't swim," Donnie pointed out.

"Maybe he's a different kind of turtle who doesn't swim?"

"A terrestrial turtle..." Donnie hummed, resting his chin in his hand, brows furrowed. "Maybe a box turtle or something..."

"You think I'm a box turtle?!" Mikey gasped, his eyes lighting up.

"But obviously the rest of you would be good at swimming if you're, like, aquatic," she continued. "So I'm not surprised you all always kicked so much butt at swim meets and stuff!"

"... Yeah. I guess so," Raph said, but he seemed kind of... dejected, almost. Like he was upset. The conversation shifted shortly after, focus shifting to Mikey’s new identity as a box turtle, but April's mind lingered.

 Why did she feel like she had just said something wrong? 

---

“This is the Battle Nexus?!"

 Raph gawked slightly, suddenly feeling a lot less confident. He could feel the various winces and mumbles around him. "It's a goddamn fortress! We're never gettin' in there!"

"Oh, come on. What were you expecting? To just walk in?" Leo scoffed. "It's not that bad!"

"Not that bad?!" Raph squawked, turning to gesture wildly to the massive walls, the towering, heavily guarded entrances, the watch towers perched on nearly every corner... Christ, was that a blimp overhead!? "Are you crazy?! There’s no way!!!"

"Well, not with that attitude," Leo said, crossing his arms over his chest. 

"Yeah! We're basically ninjas, Raph, we got this!" Mikey cheered, ever optimistic.

"We’re not ninjas, Mikey. And there's no way in hell we're sneakin' in there. You two are out of your mind," Raph said with a scowl. 

"We don't gotta sneak!" Leo insisted, waving away the other's concerns. "Don't worry! I'll talk us in there, no problem! Leon's got this. I'm an actor, remember? I just gotta charisma our way past one of those guards."

"You wanna talk your way in?" April questioned, raising a brow. "Leo, are you sure about this?"

"Of course I'm sure! This'll be a piece of cake. C'mon-- watch and be amazed!"

They were not amazed.

"Seriously, Leo?" Raph hissed, no more than five minutes later, the group slinking back into the same alley they had started from with a few new bumps and bruises and their metaphorical (literal?) tails between their legs. "Caravaggio? The awards show host? From the Bloodsporties?"

"I thought it'd work!" Leo cried, throwing up his hands. "Everyone likes to be flattered! People love it when you bring them awards!"

"Why do you need four assistants to drop off an award?" Donnie hissed.

"It's a very important award!" Leo insisted.

"That no one's ever heard of?!"

"Yet," Leo huffed. "Okay, look, it's fine. Leon's still got this. We just gotta switch over to plan B."

"Plan B had better not be at all similar to Plan A," Raph said, crossing his arms. "Or involve any of us being strong-armed off the premises by a massive yokai guard!"

"It won't, it won't, I promise!" Leo assured, getting to his feet again. "Okay. Watch and be amazed! Again!"

Leo shook out his limbs, straightening his posture, rolling his shoulders back, and setting his feet apart. And then, for just a moment, he was completely still. His chest didn't even twitch with a single breath. All at once, he inhaled sharply--

 ... And nothing happened.

"Wow. Amazing," Donnie said dryly.

"Well, just, gimme a minute! You're breaking my concentration!" Leo snapped, repeating the motion-- and then again, and then a few more times, until he was basically flailing in place, repeatedly thrashing in the same spot. "Come-- ON! Work already!"

"Leo, what the hell are you doin'?" Raph sighed. Leo groaned loudly in frustration.

"I am trying to use my mystic teleportation powers! Obviously!"

"Your what?" Donnie scoffed.

"I'm sorry, you mean the weird mystic things that we've been doin' completely against our will for the past two weeks and have absolutely zero control over? That one?" Raph grit out.

"Well, I'm starting to get the hang of the pattern..." Leo muttered.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!!!"

"Well, maybe he can really do it!" Mikey chipped in with a bit of tentative encouragement. 

"So, let me get this straight," Donnie said, rubbing his temples. "You are trying to teleport all six of us inside of the Battle Nexus... using your mind. Is that correct?"

Leo scowled. He shuffled his feet at the dirt, his lower lip poked out.

"It could happen," he huffed.

"You're an idiot."

"Leo, there's no way this is ever gonna work! We barely even know anything about these powers!" Raph insisted. "What if it's dangerous?!"

"I'm getting the hang of it!" Leo repeated. "I could do it! And how would you know, anyway? You don't even have any powers yet!"

"Guys!" April yelled over the chaos, and the rest of the group paused to glance over.

Scowling, she gestured wildly to the little yellow yokai creature that had led him here.

Oh, right. The one who teleported.

There was a long beat of silence.

"Yeah, that's probably a better plan," Leo reluctantly conceded, though he was still pouting. 

"Thank you," April said, scooping the yokai up, who purred and waved his tail, seemingly happy to help. "Okay, come on guys, huddle up. And try not to fall over this time!"

The whole group obeyed, scrunching up around each other and grabbing onto various hands and elbows to make sure everyone would make it to where they needed to go. But something Leo had said nagged at the edges of Raph's mind, gnawing at him even as a bright flash of cyan light overtook them, the world going out from under their feet as they teleported once again.

Why didn't he have any powers yet?

---

Donatello wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting the inside of the Battle Nexus to look like, but it wasn’t ‘literal sports stadium.’

Though they stumbled a bit, they all managed to keep their footing this time once they teleported inside the halls of the Battle Nexus, thankfully in a quiet, unoccupied corner just outside of a stairwell. Perhaps it had been naive of him, but he hadn’t expected the inside of this place to so closely resemble the inside of a modern football arena. 

“Nice job, little guy,” April whispered to the little yellow yokai, who looked just a bit more tired than he had before, Donnie noted, panting softly. “We’ll take it from here. You rest,” she instructed gently, tucking the critter into her jacket. 

“Anyone have any idea where we’re going?” Leo questioned, looking around suspiciously.

“No,” Raph admitted. “But everyone stick close. And… act casual. This place has gotta be crawling with yokai!” Donnie concurred; he could hear the roars of the crowd from here. “If we don’t call any attention to ourselves, we can just blend in. Dad has be around here somewhere.”

“You got it, bossman,” Leo hummed. “Come on. I think the main stadium is over there. Let’s check that out first and see what the deal is.” 

Now, Donnie may be a theater kid, but he was not exactly an actor the way Leo was, (or claimed to be, anyway,) and so ‘acting casual’ was a bit of a demand. He was very focused on trying to make his body language ‘casual,’ in keeping his muscles untensed and his expression neutral, to the extent that he was not especially paying that much attention to their surroundings as the group trailed after Leo. He followed his siblings’ lead into the main seating area of the arena, adjusting the settings of his headphones slightly as they moved to join the edges of the crowd, hoping to keep out the excited screams of the fans.

As a result, he was a bit taken aback when he did look up to take in the scene of the ring below them.

And oh. Oh my god.

This really was fucking bloodsport, huh?

“Jesus christ--”

He was vaguely aware of Raph’s hand hurriedly slapping over Mikey’s eyes before he could get a good look at the scene not just in the battle ring below, but also projected onto the massive jumbotron, and the younger immediately gave a yelp of protest.

“Hey! Raph--”

“Mikey, I know that you don’t wanna be babied and you’re gonna complain, but I really need you to just trust your big brother on this one,” Raph hissed out, his voice tight. “Don’t. Look.”

April had her hands over her mouth, and Leo bristled, mumbling a few curses. Donnie really, really didn’t want to be watching this, but he couldn’t quite take his eyes away. There was a wet, crunching noise, so loud that they could hear it even from up here in the balconies (were they mic’ed up? Sweet baby Galileo--) and the entire party winced around him as the crowds roared in delight.

“What happened?!” Mikey cried from behind Raph’s hands.

“Donnie?” April said, glancing over at him.

He swallowed hard, his stomach flipping. No, no, no. Come on. Keep it together, Vomitello. Not the time, not the place, not at all casual…! 

Leo, to his credit, caught on pretty quickly, paling a bit at the realization and jumping forward to bodily whip Donnie away from the scene, beginning to herd the group away.

“Okay, well, Dad’s definitely not down there!” He bit out with a nervous laugh. “Thank fucking god… Look. Obviously, we’re up super high. Let’s find the stairs, start heading down, and see if we find anything on the way,” he said hurriedly, not slowing his pace until they were basically back out where they started, in the near-abandoned outside hallways. 

“Sounds like a plan,” Raph said, finally releasing his grip on Mikey’s head. “Uh. Don…?”

“I’m good,” he squeaked out, leaning over slightly, his hands on his knees as he coughed a few times. “All good, no problem…! Just… gimme a second…!”

“Donald,” Leo said through gritted teeth, clapping his hands together decisively. “I am literally begging you not to puke right now.”

“I am doing my best, thank you!” Donnie snapped in response, squeezing his eyes shut. “Oh my god, why was it so lumpy? It looked like cottage cheese!”

“What are you doing!? Stop thinking about it!” Leo cried. 

“Think about something else instead! Like… the periodic table! You love that thing,” Mikey suggested brightly. “Like, uhhh, what’s the symbol for chlorine?”

“C-L,” Donnie bit out, flapping his hands a bit and letting out a slow breath through a clenched jaw. “Come on, Mikey, that’s way too easy.”

“Okay, uhhm, what’s the atomic number for iodine?”

“Fifty-three.”

“Yeah! And what’s the atomic mass of titanium?”

“Forty-seven-point-eight-six-seven.”

“Yep! And uranium?”

“Oh, uranium, my beloved, my white whale…! Two-hundred and thirty-eight-point-zero-two-eight-nine.”

“AHHH!” Mikey imitated a buzzer. “Wrong!”

Donnie’s head snapped up. “What?!”

“Just kidding!” Mikey chirped happily. “I don’t actually know the answer. You’re probably right.”

“Oh, you evil genius,” Donnie said, shaking his head. “I’m never helping you study for science class ever again.”

“Pshhhh, yeah you will. Plus you feel better now, don’t you?” Mikey pressed, grinning wide.

“Yes, okay, fine. I owe you one,” Donnie sighed deeply, offering just the smallest of smiles and rubbing the other’s head as though tousling hair, (not that he had any anymore. Ugh, don’t think about that, either,) eliciting a giggle from the other. At least the nausea had backed off now. “Okay. Come on. Leo’s right, shockingly enough. Let’s head downstairs and see if we can find anything.” 

“Oh thank god,” Leo whispered, yanking the door to the stairwell open and gesturing to his siblings. “Okay, c’mon, let’s go! Vamanos!” 

The trip down through the Battle Nexus was long and boring, but admittedly, calming. Donnie had always been a fan of repetitive actions, and so far, every new floor they investigated they found much of the same, not uncovering much save for more seating for screaming, cheering yokai along with the occasional food court or souvenir stand. Any guards they found they made sure to steer clear of, slowly working their way down through the stadium.

“This is going nowhere,” Raph hissed softly, leaning into Leo as they did a lap through yet another floor of stadium seating. Quite frankly, Donnie was beginning to wonder if all these floors were exactly the same. “Where the heck do you think they’re keepin’ Dad?”

“I don’t know! How would I know?” Leo questioned, bristling a bit.

“This was your plan!”

“Yeah, ‘cause no one else had a plan!” He bit back, scowling. “Look, we’ve just gotta… uh… we’ve gotta…” He looked around for a moment, floundering for just a second before he lit up, pointing.

“We’ve just gotta follow one of those guys!” 

Everyone glanced over, and April frowned a bit.

“Follow one of the guards?”

“Yeah!” Leo nodded excitedly. “Look, if anyone’s gonna know how to get into the secret, spooky parts of the Nexus, it’ll be an employee! There’s no way Dad’s just in the stands somewhere or in any of the other public bits of this place. And we’re just walking in circles.” He said with a roll of his wrist. “But I bet if we tail one of those dudes, they’ll lead us straight to him! We just gotta be sneaky.”

“He does have a pretty good point,” Mikey reasoned.

“I dunno. It seems kinda dangerous,” April said, raising a brow. 

“Yeah, but we don’t have any other ideas…” Raph said, crossing his arms over his chest.

The three of them glanced over at Donnie, and he sighed, tilting his head back and forth for a moment to do some rapid calculations.

“I do agree that the risk associated with this plan of action is… significant,” he said, frowning a bit. “Butttttt… just wandering around aimlessly isn’t going to get us anywhere. Following someone has a much higher probability of success.” 

“That sounds good enough to me!” Raph said, giving a nod. “Alright. Let’s do this then. Everyone’s just gotta be ninja-level sneaky. Got it?”

“Got it,” the group agreed, giving a nod.

Would this go horribly wrong? Only one way to find out.

Finding their target was easy enough. This place was crawling with guards, quite frankly, they just had to pick one. After rejecting the first few targets, as they were all rather beefy, they settled on a slightly smaller, less-deadly-looking Nexus employee to follow.

“Okay,” Leo said. “We’ve just gotta tail him for a while and see where he goes. Everyone stick close, and be quiet.”

“Obviously! You don’t have to tell us to be quiet!” Donnie hissed back.

“Both of you shut up!” Raph whispered. “Look, come on, pay attention! He’s on the move. Mad Dogz, roll out! We can’t lose this guy.” 

Donnie huffed and grumbled a bit, resisting the urge to hipcheck Leo as the group began picking their way through the halls, taking care to stick to the shadows. At first, Donnie thought that this was just another waste of their time, and they would end up doing even more laps around the stadium. He dared to get his hopes up, however, when the fox-like yokai paused in front of an unassuming wall. It looked about the same as any other portion of wall in this place, but once the Yokai placed his hand (paw?) to it, it lit up white, and suddenly, there was a door that wasn’t there before.

“Whoa! Lookit that!” Mikey gasped.

“We’re all already looking at it, Mikey, be quiet,” Donnie hissed. 

“What’d Raph say!? Shut it! And come on! Quick and quiet, before the door closes!” Raph whispered with a hurried wave of his arm, and the five took off, closing the gap between themselves and the guard in order to slip inside the secret panel, quiet as ninjas-- just like Dad taught them. Even April was surprisingly quiet, and Donnie was privately impressed. It took them years of lessons with their dad (and ill-advised shenanigans that they wished not to face consequences for,) to get this good at sneaking.

All five of them made it in, and the guard was already halfway down the hall by the time they joined them, seemingly none the wiser. Donnie didn’t make a sound, but silently, he fucking whooped and cheered. Yes!!! He had been really fifty-fifty on whether or not this was going to work out. 

At the end of the hall, the fox guard clicked a button on the wall, and about five seconds later, the wall opened up like an elevator.

The elevator had about eight other yokai inside. These yokai did not have their backs on them.

“HEY!” One of them immediately shouted, pointing at their group, as they had not yet managed to find a proper hiding space in the long, but sparse hallway. Every single other yokai snapped around to look at them. “What’re you doing in here!? This is employees only!”

Fuck.

“Uhhh…” A pained smile spread on Leo’s face. “We’re looking for the bathroom?” 

 “Sure,” the fox scoffed, turning to face them properly now, beginning to make his way back down the short hall to meet them. “Alright, lemme see your tickets. I’ll escort you back to your seats.”

“Our tickets? Uhhh… Sure…” Raph spluttered for a moment, laughing nervously. “Let’s see, uh, where did we put--”

April yanked her club from her backpack and promptly slammed it into the yokai’s head with a loud thunk.

“APRIL!” Raph screamed, jumping in surprise. “What the hell!?”

“Well, there’s nowhere to run!” She shouted in response, and, ah, welp, there she went. Full charge ahead, then? “Come on, we gotta get into that elevator!”

Donnie sighed deeply. Well, he had predicted fifty-fifty. 

He set his jaw, rolling his shoulders a few times before whipping his bo staff from his back. “Alright, well. Here we go.”

“COWABUNGA!” Raph shouted as he charged forward, and Donnie resisted the urge to roll his eyes. They were gonna have to work on battle formations and plans later.

But he was prepared this time. He wasn’t gonna freeze up and back down.

Yes, this was a fight. An actual, for real fight, which he had never been in before! But he hadn’t trained for nothing. 

He got this. They’d be fine. They got this.

Leo laughed, sliding forward with quick, practiced ease, his odachi flashing forward to smack the blunt of the blade against the ankles of the nearest yokai and send them tumbling to the ground while he darted past them. April was right on his tail, beaning anyone who got too close and following her younger brother’s lead. “Come on, guys, keep up!”

 “Right behind yah!” Mikey cheered, both him and Raph rushing forward at a matching pace. Despite the size difference, the two easily kept up with one another. Where Raph elbowed his opponents out of the way, clearing himself a path by bodily throwing their enemies to the side, Mikey darted and danced his way around them, a zig-zagged ballet to Raph’s straight, unyielding path. He whooped loudly as he went, always just out of reach with each step.

“Hot Soup!” Donnie noted their eldest brother howled out another battle cry (wasn’t that copyrighted?) Mikey’s kusari-fundo whipped about to fling him forward, tackling the largest of the guards to the ground and sending them both tumbling down the hall. 

Like… Both of them tumbling.

Also, Mikey was in the mix too, still attached by the chains of his kusari-fundo.

Well, at least it was still forward momentum! 

Donnie inhaled deeply, his muscles coiling.

Couldn’t get left behind. 

He darted down the hallway, jumping over and dodging around anyone already on the ground. At one point, a hand flashed out, grabbing at his ankle, and Donnie bit out a series of curses. He wrenched himself out of their grip, stumbling slightly, and nearly ran straight into one of the other (quite large) yokai in the hallway. A rapid equation darted through his head, however, and he just barely managed to correct his footing at the last second, turning sharply on his heel to transfer the momentum into his staff. The weapon curled around to slam into the guard with a heavy, satisfying thawk, sending them sprawling to the ground, and the entire hallway shuddered at the impact.

Well, that was a close one. He hopped over their fallen form and surged ahead, reaching down to grab Mikey’s hand as he went, dragging both him and Raph to their feet behind him, “Come on!”

The two found their footing quickly with the assist, falling back into a sprint-- smacking and dodging enemies as they went with about a seventy-five-percent success rate. Jesus, had this hallway always been this long? It felt like it was taking a stupid amount of time to get to the other end of it! Out of the very corners of his eyes, Donnie just barely spotted one of the larger guards rising back up to their feet, lunging at him from behind-- only for a neon green club to come whipping out of nowhere at the very last second, colliding with the side of his assailant’s head and throwing him right back to the ground.

“Hey! Only I get to hit my little brothers!” April shrieked, her face set in a furious scowl. The guard, a huge, stocky, lion-like creature snarled in reply, lashing out with his legs to send her sprawling to the floor with a yelp.

“Oh, you did not just do that to our friend!” Mikey snapped, flashing forward to stand protectively in front of their sister, his kusari-fundo whizzing around them, filling the air with a barely-there whine. “Back off!”

He lashed out with the weapon, his arm whipping forward with the movement-- only to blink in surprise when physics failed to behave as expected. Which, uh, was pretty unusual for physics. Physics were typically pretty reliable. But the weight at the end of his weapon spun wildly in place, suspended in air for several long seconds, before it promptly lit up in a blazing flame.

“Ooh!” Mikey shrieked in delight. “Magic weapon! Guys, loo-- ACK!”

And there they were, Donnie thought dimly to himself. 

The uncontrolled variables.

Donnie gasped, immediately ducking down and covering his head as his brother flew about the room like a deranged bird, still hanging onto his (seemingly demonic) mystic weapon. He all but pinballed off the walls, screaming the whole time. The lion just barely managed to leap out of the way before Mikey crashed into the wall, flopping down with a small squeak on impact, luckily seeming shaken but not injured.

“WHOA! Mikey! That was awesome!” Raph gaped, his eyes widening. “Dude, how did you do that?!”

“I dunno!” Mikey said, stumbling to his feet and kind of wavering a bit with dizziness. “I was just swinging my weapon around and it just-- did it!”

“Let me try!” Raph said, shaking his tonfas about like they were goddamn maracas. “Come on, magic weapon, magic weapon, magic weapon-- OOH!” He yelped in surprise as one of the remaining guards crashed into him, snarling as they all but whipped him from his feet. But Raph held his ground. “Okay, alright-- magic weapon tests later! Fight now!”

“Can’t wait to see what mine does!” Leo laughed as he leaped over the group, diving towards an oncoming yokai. He swung his blade forward, slicing through the air with a loud crackle of near-electric energy--

A bright blue circle of mystic energy promptly opened up beneath Leo, and he yelped in surprise as he went plunging downward.

And downward.

And downward.

And downward.

And downward.

“Hm,” Donnie remarked. “I guess he can teleport.” 

“GET! ME! OFF! THIS! RIDE!” Leo howled, flailing as he plummeted endlessly through the two parallel portals he had sliced through reality, one below his feet and the other up above his head, only picking up the pace the longer he fell. 

Donnie sighed loudly. He was sure someone else would get him. Eventually. In the meantime, someone was gonna have to take care of the remaining yokai guards. Luckily, this one was suitably distracted by his twin brother’s infinite falling.

“And that’s why I like fighting the old-fashioned way,” Donnie hummed, slipping past the yokai’s side and into his blind spot, watching their eyes widen in surprise as he jabbed sharply at them with his bo staff. They were just barely able to dodge out of the way of Donnie’s attacks. “Though the portal does make for some quality entertainment, I must admit--”

They jumped out of Donnie’s range, swiping forward with a clawed arm, and Donnie’s body immediately, instinctively moved in response, his bo staff flashing upward to block the move and force them off-kilter. He hardly even had to think. His body already knew what to do when he needed it.

It’s just like a tournament. No different from a tournament. You’ve won thousands of fights. This is exactly the same thing. Just keep your head, do the math-- You’re good at this, remember?

Bouncing off the yokai’s arm, Donnie’s staff whipped back around to ricochet into the side of their head, earning him a frustrated and perhaps pained snarl in response. See? Donnie grinned, just for a second, ducking easily out of the way of the guard’s counterattack and leaping to the side, finding himself the space once more to adjust his stance and run rapid calculations. Numbers danced in front of his eyes, and he quickly zeroed in on the equation with the best probability of success, building his plan of action around that.

The yokai snarled, leaping after him-- exactly as he expected. Donnie’s entire body instantly snapped downward and out of their path in response, ducking away from their attack. At the same time, they pitched themselves to the left, whipping their bo staff around as they went to find their mark. The guard made a short, strangled noise of surprise as the weapon collided with their throat, sending them reeling in the opposite direction. They were almost immediately on their knees, choking and spluttering as Donnie darted away, just the tiniest bit breathless as he went.

“Just like I planned it--!” He had laughed, quietly delighted that it had, in fact, gone the way he planned it, and why had he been worried? He could do this, he knew how to do this!-- when his youngest sibling went flying into his side with a yelp. 

The pair of them tumbled across the hallway before slamming into the wall, bringing their unexpected trip to a sudden and grinding halt. Donnie groaned softly, wincing as he slowly forced himself back up, stars all but dancing in front of his eyes, Mikey flopped over beside him and seeming just as dazed. Ow. Okay. That hadn’t been in his calculations.

He just barely caught sight of the lion yokai diving for them, catching on about half a second before the attack landed. 

He didn’t run any numbers this time. He didn’t have the chance.

His muscles moved quicker than even his brain could, throwing himself bodily over top of his baby brother to shield him from the coming impact.

[ next ]

[phoebepheebsphibs]

Double-Mutated Mikey

Chapter 47/Epilogue: Mikey Done Good

Continued from the short story written by @boots-with-the-fur-club

Prev

It has been a month since Mikey's second rescue from the TCRI.

The lair is bright again. There is laughter again. Everyone smiles and jokes and has fun again.

It's a home again.

Casey Jones Jr. smiles as he works to tidy up the lair, moving the empty and flattened cardboard boxes over to a side tunnel so they can be placed in a dumpster later. Usually, none of them mind the clutter or the mess from moving, but they're having guests over tonight and Casey wants to make a good impression.

Speaking of, CJ gets a notif from the security system that April has arrived. She waltzes in moment later, smiling brightly.

"Whattup, family!" she yells loudly, announcing her arrival to all who didn't get the notification. "It's your favourite person! Apriiiiiiiiiiiiil O'Neil!!"

CJ rolls his eyes as Donatello and S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.2.0 come out to greet her.

"Hey, April!" Donnie responds, quickly fistbumping her in greeting. "How was class?"

"Pretty good. My report got an A, so I'd think I'm a shoo-in for the competitive writing finals this year. I heard the winners get to intern for Channel 6!"

Donnie rolls his eyes and smiles.

"You always did like the news."

"Congrats, bromigo!" S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.2.0 cheers, activating a few streamers and confetti, much to Casey's annoyance at having to clean the hall again.

"Where's everybody else?" April asks, glancing up and down the halls.

"Raph is still getting the dining room set up," Donnie says. "And Mikey's making dinner."

"Mikey is?" April asks, eyes wide, yet nowhere near as wide as her smile. "He's cooking again?"

"We've been practicing a few recipes," Casey announces proudly. "He felt confident enough to try making some of the food tonight."

"Lemme guess... pizza?" April chuckles as she follows the others into the living room to help Raphael set up. "I can't wait for another Mikey original! So, is everybody coming tonight?"

"My mom said she'll be here in a bit," Casey answers as he starts wiping down the table for the fourth time. "Agent Bishop and Honeycutt will be arriving within the next fifteen minutes, I think."

"Pops and Draxum are still waiting for Leo to wrap up his appointment. They're cuttin' it close, but Leo promised to be on time," Raph says as he carries a stack of plates into the room. "Which means he'll be fashionably late again."

Donnie sneers.

"You'd think a guy who can make portals to any place on earth would understand how to be punctual."

"I still can't believe it's been a month," April awes. "Everything flew by so fast!"

"And it doesn't help that the one day at the TCRI felt like a whole week," Raph groans. "Hey, who's in charge of silverware?"

"I got it," Casey offers, running into the kitchen and returning a moment later with the cutlery. "So, Mikey made pizza, Raph made breadsticks, and I made salad."

"I brought mini shish kabobs and dip," April offers, holding up a tupperware with grilled veggies on skewers.

"Sounds great! Mom mentioned bringing brownies..." Casey recalls, "Bishop and the Professor offered to pick up drinks, and Master Splinter and the Baron said they'd grab some Yokai hors d'oeuvre from the Hidden City vendors. So I think we'll be good!"

The group continue to set up the dinner table just as three more guests enter from the subway tunnel.

"I HAVE ARRIVED!!!" Cassandra yells loudly, waving her hockey stick around like a crazed chimpanzee as she runs.

Cass rushes forwards and wraps her arms around CJ as tightly as she can. He reciprocates with a laugh.

"ᴡᴇ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀʟꜱᴏ ᴀʀʀɪᴠᴇᴅ," Fugitoid remarks as he and Bishop walk in next, "ʙᴜᴛ ᴇʟᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴏ ꜱᴏ ɪɴ ᴀ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ᴄᴀʟᴍᴇʀ ᴍᴀɴɴᴇʀ."

"Hey, Professor!" Casey greets with a smile. "You're looking good. New upgrades?"

"ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ɴᴏᴛɪᴄɪɴɢ. ᴅᴏɴᴀᴛᴇʟʟᴏ ʜᴀꜱ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴇxᴛʀᴇᴍᴇʟʏ ʜᴇʟᴘꜰᴜʟ ᴛʜᴇꜱᴇ ᴘᴀꜱᴛ ꜰᴇᴡ ᴡᴇᴇᴋꜱ…"

"Anything for a fan of my work," Dee jokes. "And you've brought drinks. Any flavourless juice?"

"Sorry, just sodas," Bishop says, holding up a few grocery bags filled with large liters of name brand seltzers.

"We can't expect you to be perfect all the time," Donnie grumbles.

"Where's Mikey?" Bishop asks.

"If he heard Cass's war cry, then he should be here any second --"

Almost on cue, Mikey comes bounding out of the kitchen at full speed, pouncing at Cass and zipping around her waist and shoulders in excitement like a hyped-up cat. He eventually perches just above her shoulders, chirping excitedly and giving her a noogie. She laughs as she reaches up and pulls him down, matching his energy and nooging him right back.

Mikey laughs before releasing his hold on her and running over to Bishop and Fugitoid, reacting much more calmly and rising to stand on two legs for them.

"Hi, guys!" he says, a smile growing across his doughy and flour-caked face.

"ꜱᴏ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ, ᴍɪᴋᴇʏ!" Fugitoid greets. "ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋɪɴɢ ᴡᴇʟʟ."

"Thanks! I'm all patched up now, see?" Mikey says as he enthusiastically shows off the large scars on his abdomen and neck. "My only complaint is the physical therapy's boring; but it is helping me to get back into my old hobbies!"

"I see you've taken up cooking?" Bishop asks, pulling a small chunk of sticky dough off Mikey's face.

"Oh, yeah. Whoops! I got a little carried away... but the pizza should be done in a while! Just enough time to talk about stuff and wait for the rest to get here! We can catch up!"

"Yeah, how's it going with the whole TCRI business?" Casey asks as he takes the brownies and sodas into the kitchen, the rest following after him and Mikey.

"Going really well," Bishop nods with a smile. "Which is surprising, considering everything. You'd think an evil corporation would try to hide their misdeeds, but what with all the leadership gone, everyone's turning on each other and revealing the truth!"

"Seriously?" Raph asks, eyes wide. "That's awesome!"

"Why haven't we heard anything about it on the news?" April asks.

"I doubt the local police will let any kind of news about a failed government study get in the public eye," Bishop sighs. "But they're handling it pretty well. Most scientists want to plea bargain, and from what I've heard the TCRI will be completely and permanently shut down within the next few days. Not just the sites stationed in NYC, but all over the globe! Then there's proceedings, court hearings, lawsuits from disgruntled employees for harassment, assault, and unfair work environments, just to name a few."

"Sounds like you have your hands full!" April laughs, moving aside as Mikey skirts behind her to retrieve a bottle of tomato sauce for the pizza.

"ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴇ'ʀᴇ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ɢᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ ꜱᴛᴀʀᴛᴇᴅ!" Fugitoid chimes in. "ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴄʀɪ ɪɴ ꜱʜᴀᴍʙʟᴇꜱ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴜɴɪᴛᴇᴅ ꜱᴛᴀᴛᴇꜱ ɢᴏᴠᴇʀɴᴍᴇɴᴛ ɪꜱ ʟᴏᴏᴋɪɴɢ ꜰᴏʀ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ɴᴇᴡ ᴛᴏ ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ɪᴛ'ꜱ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ!"

"And that's where you two come in, hm?" Donnie asks with a smirk.

"I think it's time we rebuilt the Earth Protection Force from the ground up," Bishop nods. "Make it the way it was supposed to be. Something we can actually rely on."

Mikey smiles brightly at the agent as he shreds the cheese over the pizza dough and tomato paste. Though in his distraction, he accidentally spreads the cheese onto the countertop rather than the pizza itself. He hastily scoops up the cheese and sprinkles it back wherever it looks needed.

"Well, you're perfect for the job!" Casey beams.

"And I know a few girl scouts who would be VERY EXCITED to help!" Cass exclaims, forgetting her inside voice for a moment.

"I'll take that under consideration," Bishop responds with a roll of his eyes. "I could use some extra help. There are a lot of bad guys out there..."

"Speaking of," Raph slides in, clearing his throat. "Any updates on a certain 'you know who' and her location?"

"Abigail Finn is still incognito," Bishop sighs. "Though, Donatello's facial tracking system and security measures have helped us to keep a few tabs on her. But she's staying discreet, keeping a low profile and avoiding anything illegal. Which is good."

"Just give me a reason to annihilate her," Donnie whispers to himself. "Or to at least let me go semi-lethal..."

"Have you made any attempts to arrest her?" Casey asks.

"We... considered it," Bishop sighs. "But we felt that it would be better to let it slide. If we did make any attempts, you can bet she'd try to twist the truth and reveal everything she knows about you guys."

"So essentially, you're at a stalemate," Casey grumbles.

"Pretty much. We know dirt on her, she knows dirt on us. So long as we stay out of each others' ways, we're fine."

"ᴇɴᴏᴜɢʜ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ʜᴇʀ. ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ? ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴜᴘ ᴛᴏ?" Fugitoid asks.

"Mostly helpin' with recovery," Raph answers. "In different ways."

"ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴏᴡ ɪꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀᴇᴄᴏᴠᴇʀʏ ɢᴏɪɴɢ, ᴍɪᴄʜᴇʟᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏ?"

Mikey sighs as he shoves the pizza into the oven. Not a begrudging sigh, but more of a 'where do I start' kind of sigh.

"Well... it's been a lot. First was the whole bedridden thing. Then the physical therapy started. Case was a HUGE help with that, he's an expert on it! And after that... it was a mix of stuff. My memory's gotten better, thanks to Draxum's mystic goop. He said by the rate I'm healing at, all my memories should be back by the end of the month!"

"ᴛʜᴀᴛ ꜱᴏᴜɴᴅꜱ ɢʀᴇᴀᴛ!" Fugitoid remarks, though the 'mystic goop' comment flies right over his head.

"Yeah... but it's not always easy," Mikey admits. "I have some bad days, a few relapses. Sometimes I still forget names and call one of my brothers by their life-colour instead. Sometimes I talk in the third person instead of the first. Some days I can't talk at all! Walking is... still wacky and tough to get used to. I'm comfortable doing both two legs and four, but I'm faster on four. My vision still acts up, but I've learned to control it a bit better. Dee and I have been training it to shift on command instead of in reaction to light! All in all, adjusting is weird."

"I bet," Bishop nods.

"Wildest thing -- pun intended -- is the whole 'animalistic traits' junk that happens. Like, I still don't get some social cues?" Mikey admits. "Like most people shake hands, but I'll smell or sniff a person first. Most people hug, I climb on them and wrap my whole body around them like a snake. I'll growl if I'm angry. Sometimes I bite when I get startled. Stuff like that."

"Don't forget that one week where you kept making nests all over the lair and storing food in your room," Donnie chimes in.

"I'm just glad you haven't tried to mark your territory or anything," Raph jokes.

Mikey gives him a joking side-glare before continuing.

"Well anyways, it's been weird and confusing but I'm doing a lot better now. I'm really happy again! Which, I'll be honest... surprises me sometimes. The nightmares aren't as constant. They happen, and sometimes I wake up and I don't know where I am. But my family's there to help whenever. I didn't think I'd be this happy this much for a long time... But here we are!"

April starts tearing up out of joy and goes to hug Mikey, who laughs and hugs her back.

"ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴏɴ ᴀ��ʏ ᴍɪꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʙʀᴏᴛʜᴇʀꜱ ʏᴇᴛ?" Fugitoid wonders.

"One or two," Mikey shrugs. "Though Raph would rather I wait a little longer. I'm kinda glad I kept the mutations, they really help with tracking and stuff -- and the looks on the villains' faces when I start climbing the walls is priceless!" Mikey cackles.

"ᴀɴᴅ… ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴᴛʀᴜꜱɪᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ?"

"Not as bad," Mikey explains. "Practically gone. Sure, Instinct pops up every once in a while. He really likes to talk during fights and junk. But Raph's been helping me out with him."

Raphael smiles proudly at the mention.

"Therapy's been good too," Mikey continues. "It helps to just... talk it out with someone."

"You've been doing therapy?" Bishop asks in pleasant surprise. "With who? A human therapist?"

"Actually, there's a Yokai clinic in the Hidden City," Mikey smiles. "Draxum recommended it to Leo, and Leo recommend it to all of us."

"Ohhhh, so is that the appointment Casey mentioned?" April asks.

"Yeah," Mikey says with a grin. "I'm really happy that Leo took the initiative to go, that was huge for him. And he's doing a lot better, too!"

Mikey continues to explain their experiences with their therapists as he works with the pizza, pulling it from the oven and sprinkling garlic and herbs into the crust before setting it back in for a few more minutes...

"Leo's therapist has been giving him tips on how to improve his mental health, gain more self-worth, and deal with his own intrusive thoughts. He said I'd like talking to them, so I went in for a sort of trial run. It was... a little awkward at first. The initial couple of sessions were just us getting to know each other and my therapist asking about my family and some hobbies, which I kinda didn't expect at first? I guess I figured that we'd jump right into the issue... But the more we talked, the closer we got and the easier it was for me to open up about my traumas and problems. So, uh, there's that!"

Mikey chuckles as he checks on the pizza again. Five more minutes, maybe... He sighs as he leaps onto the kitchen counter and perches there.

"So, I guess this is our new normal," April notes. "Everything seems to be all wrapped up for the most part."

"Except for one thing," Cassandra grumbles. "The blue turtle and his fathers aren't here yet! I want to eat the pizza already!!"

"It's not even out of the oven," Raph scolds.

"I'LL EAT IT WITH MY BARE HANDS!" Cass shouts, pumping her fists. "I'LL EAT IT STRAIGHT OUT OF THE FIRE! IT'S NO MATCH FOR ME!!"

"Uh-huh, suuuuuuure," April jokes.

"When is Leo getting back, though?" Mikey asks.

"By my calculations, he'll be here in the next three minutes," Donnie declares. "My tracker says he and Papa and Draxum just left the Yokai clinic and should be getting their contributions for dinner right about now."

"Great! They'll arrive just in time for the pizza..."

The group continue talking about whatever they can until Leonardo's portal illuminates the outer room. Warm welcomes, questions on how the session went, how Leo's doing, what Draxum has been up to, and so on until everyone decides that they are starving and sit themselves down for dinner.

The group catch Leo up to the discussion through the salad and appetizers. He huffs at the mention of Dr. Finn. Draxum catches the others up on the recent finishes to his home and how Huginn and Muninn have come back to work for him again.

Fugitoid pretends to eat the food, which causes Casey Jones to snort his soda through his nose and the entire table laughs, even John Bishop.

Mikey uses his mutated tongue to snag an hors d'oeuvre off of Leo's plate when he isn't looking. Splinter sees and snickers loudly, which alerts Leo to Mikey's second and third attempts.

The pizza comes out a few minutes later, hot and ready. The crust is a bit warped and has strange knots, the cheese is mismatched and looks odd, and the toppings are strangely arranged. It's the wackiest-looking flatbread the world has ever seen.

Yet when each guest takes a bite, they are wonderfully surprised. It is quite possibly the most delicious pizza in the world, despite its flaws and outward appearance.

"Mikey, you made this?" Leo asks with shock as he chows down on the slice.

Mikey nods as he eats his own cheesy triangle.

"Wow, dude! This tastes awesome!"

Mikey's smile stretches across his face as Leo pats him on the back.

"You did good, Mikey! You did really good."

The End.

Prev || AO3

[fru1tsnacks]

I have this idea about a rottmnt au. So, I recently watched Phantom of The Opera and thought, "hey it'll be cool to see this as a au." so I was thinking I could make this a new au.

The Phantom/Erik - Donnie.

Christine Daaé - S/O

Rhoul De Chagny - Leo.

Carlotta - Cassandra/Kendra

Madame Giry - Big Mama.

Meg Giry - April O'Neil

(I'll think of more characters or you guys can give ideas. If you want.)

____________________

Backstory

Lou Jitsu was a talented opera singer but mysteriously left his talented career for unknown causes. The reason why because of his rivel, Baron Draxum. He couldn't stand to see Lou Jitsu as famous and talented so he put poisonous mutation in his wine. Lou Jitsu, after turning into this disgusting creature fled the opera house with his pet turtles, accidentally touching them with his mutated fingers. But he made one mistake, leaving his softshelled son, Donnie, because the side of his face had a deformity. He looked like a monster. Worse than Lou Jitsu. After Lou Jitsu left, Baron Draxum decided to take Donnie and raised him as his own. Unfortunately, Baron Draxum fell sick and died. Donnie, grieving him tried to live on his legacy by being a opera singer. But because of the side of his face looking hideous, he was denied and called a monster. So, he decided to be one.

After Lou Jitsu found a solitude to raise his sons, he became the best father to his three sons. But, as to Baron Draxum, Lou Jitsu became too old to take care of his boys and sadly passed away just as soon the right for mutants and yokai to be on surfaced. His sons, having inherit his wealthy estate had a lavish life style. Especially of the new law in place.

Which, we finally come to you. You were born in a small market town in rural area. Your father was a farmer and a choir singer who was known for his violin skills. Unfortunately your mother died when you were six years old. Your father sold his land and moved to to pursue musical fame, but you ended up in poverty. You two traveled around the rural town, performing at fairs where you sang and your father played the violin. Big Mama discovered your talents and your father at the fair and was impressed. She took you and your father to The Hidden City and then New York for your education. That's how you met Leo and his brothers. You four would play with each other and make the silliest of games. When you were teens, he confessed his love for you but you denied. He was devastated but was happy to stay your friend. Unfortunately your father fell sick and told you one last time that he promises to send you a Angel of Music for you to guide you. But after four years, you lost your passion for singing after your fathers death. When you arrived at the opera house, people said you sounded like a rusty hinge. Only Donnie saw your true beauty and tutored you. But when he heard of this so called, "Angel of Music" he decided to be your, Angel of Music.

____________________

And that's a wrap! Wow. That took too long. I'm happy I finished this. If you have any questions leave them in the comments (I feel like a YouTuber smh)

See ya!

[rottmnt-residuum]

I love your comic. But I don't understand one thing...

Why is the Hidden City Council helping Bishop?

From what I remember it's impossible to distinguish between a mutant and a yokai. And I don't see any interest in it for the Council to fight mutants. So why?

If this is some kind of spoiler to the story to I will understand if you leave it unanswered

Okay, theres a lot to say here and while it's mostly head canon, its all based on evidence in show or how the real world works, but we'll start with this. Yokai and Mutants are definitely not the same thing. Like, at all.

Mutants, unlike yokai, were literally genetically designed by Draxum. Of course, it's more of a broad design with most of them, but the boys had a genetic donor hand-picked. They are war machines.

Mutants, are specifically made to be weapons.

Yokai... while it's said that the empyrean is the cause of them, that was said unofficially outside the show, therefore we don't take it as canon. We've also said before that we head canon empyrean as more as a mystic enhancer.

Taking into account Japanese folklore, which has been around far longer than the point the kraang has been assumed to arrive, as well as the life span yokai have. Big mama probably isn't exaggerating when she says they've been around for eons.

While we can only find this on the wiki and can't remember an episode where this is mentioned(it might be made up), but an individual yokai ages 10:1 relative to a human. This means Baron Draxum is in his 400's-500's. This means that the yokai world, with how developed it is, has been around for a long, long time.

If we look at how the boys are aging... at best they have human life spans, but if we look at mikey in the movie he has aged much, much more than the others. Mikey species of turtle can live to 100 (making him the longest lived of the bunch), but with how using mystics seems to age him... yeah. (but, it could be from not being trained properly) (also, with this aging side efect, if it's common, yokai might actually live for even longer if they didn't use mystics. Barry could just be in his 300 or something.)

Mutants don't age like yokai.

Also, indistinguishable???? (i mean that's what a lot of the humans in residuum will think, but-) Mutants are just... like, animal but make it human(if they have a human component). Yokai are much, much more diverse with body plans than mutants are. Mother fcking bone man??? skin man????? multiple limb, multiple eyes. literal orcs and dragons and slime people and-

Yokai aren't designed. (i mean they are, by an artist, but not in world)

So, in the world of residuum, if you sequence their dna, they are completely different. But thats not even getting into the bag of worms that is the mechanics of Mutant DNA.

Now for why the hidden city is helping... Look at me in the eye. Look at me in the eye and tell me a government wouldn't want to get their hands in that sweet, sweet biological weapon pie. Anyway.

If you really pay attention to the yokai presence on the surface in the show you'll notice that... every single yokai on the surface, with exactly two exceptions, has a connection with crime. The ones that don't, are usually hiding from something. With that... It's pretty obvious to me that yokai on the surface would generally be considered criminals by those in the hidden city.

Why would the hidden city care about what happens to some random criminal?

Another thing is that if a yokai is on the surface, they're typically cloaked, so not really at risk of being captured. Draxum is literally just hanging out, tormenting teenagers in a lunchroom. His whole situation just... out there. It was a given that they were going to mistake him for a mutant.

(of course this isn't mentioning the fact that the hidden city police are opportunistic at best, and apathetic at worst. With how big mama is just able to do basically whatever she wants, the hidden city government doesn't actually seem to care that much about their crime problem. They only really started condemning Draxum once he got their presence exposed to the public. Like really? Just one agent on the guy making biological super weapons? Okay.)

(also, also. in residuim the hidden city is considered a sovereign state, thus yokai have documentation and rights and political power. It's mystics guys. They would have so much political power, oh my god. its just more convenient for them to stay hidden really.)

also, racism is a thing. Yokai aren't like.. immune

[wingedcupcaketimemachine]

hello👋😊 can i ask you for a rottmnt headcanon of leo and donnie with a female partner who keeps her organs in vases like cleo de nile from g3 and has to keep them close to her to keep her body stable.

sorry if it sounds weird :<

Donnie and Leo x Undead!Fem!Reader Headcanons

Pairing: Rise!Donnie x Fem!Reader, Rise!Leo x Fem!Reader

Summary: How Donnie and Leo would react to their Fem!S/O keeping their organs in a jar

Warnings: Mentions of death, possible gore? mentions of organs

Type: Romantic ❤️

A/N: While this is technically a female reader, it can also be read as a gender neutral reader. I also went a little overboard with Leo, and I gave the reader a bit of backstory to go along with the headcanons. Hope you enjoy <3

Headcanons start below cut

Rise of the TMNT Masterlist

Main Masterlist

Rise!Donnie x Reader

Donnie is very fascinated by you!

He finds it very interesting how you can survive without you organs inside of your body, and will run dozens of experiments on you (with your permission ... mostly)

However, he prefers that you keep them in the jars since he can become easily grossed out

Donnie can be very attentive when he wants to be, and is always very hyper aware of your health and bodily stability at all times

He'd make sure that you're never too far away from your organs because your wellbeing is very important to him :)

He'd likely create some sort of deceive that allows for your organs to be near you at all times so your body remains stables

He would also have alerts set up on his phone so that he would be notified every time you body starts to become unstable

If you ever get too far away from your organs, he would notice right away and get you back to them as quickly as possible

You're more than likely some type of mummy yokai, so the two of you would probably spend a lot of time in the hidden city

Since you're an undead, you don't have the disadvantages of human mortality

This makes you a lot more durable than a normal human, so you often go on missions with the boys to protect the city

Even though Donnie can get a bit grossed out at times, he's more so interested in learning about you and how you work

Rise!Leo x Reader

Takes place mostly during season 1 episode 7

Like a traditional mummy, you were originally human

You met the turtles through your childhood best friend, and quickly became close friends with the boys (especially Leo)

After a few months of hanging out with the boys, you often felt useless and left out when the turtles and April would head out on missions

Once you started dating, Leo was adamant that you stayed in the lair with Splinter so you wouldn't get hurt

However, you were confident abilities (you had been training with the boys for the past few months) and were sure you could help, regardless of what Leo thought

On their latest mission, the boys planned on eliminating the rest of the oozesquitos plaguing New York

After the boys left the lair, you distracted Splinter with his favorite television show and sneak out after them

Once you snuck out of the lair, you were able to use the tracking app that Donnie had installed in your phone in order to track them down at some hotel in the middle of the city

Once you got there, you caught up to them inside of Big Mama's office

"What are you doing here (Y/N)? I told you to stay home with Splinter. This place is way to dangerous!" Leo asked urgently

Before you could explain yourself to your boyfriend, Big Mama had quickly captured all five of you in her webs, and you ended up being tied together with Leo

After Baron Draxum had arrived and stolen back his oozesquitos, you and the boys were able to free yourselves from Big Mama's webs using the spikes on Raph's shell

After their escape, Leo used his mystic swords to create a portal to the roof to confront Draxum

As Leo and Raph jump through the portal, you quickly follow after them to support them in their fight with Draxum

As the three of you were on the roof with Draxum, you quickly started passing the jar of oozesquitos to one another in an attempt to avoid Draxum's mystic vines

However, you were quickly at a stalemate as you and Raph had the oozesquitos, while Draxum had Leo in his grasp, hanging over the edge of the building

"Let my boyfriend go!" you yelled at Draxum, getting into a defensive stance

Even though you weren't the strongest fighter, you couldn't just stand there and watch when Leo's life was on the line

After Draxum dropped Leo, you could only watch helplessly as Raph activated his mystic powers and dove after him

Now, you were stuck on the roof with Draxum by yourself

Draxum easily overpowered you, and quickly captured the jar of oozesquitos with his vines

When he was finally back in control of the oozesquitos, Draxum ordered them to fly out to the city and mutate the humes, the closest one to them being you

As you were bitten by the oozesquito, you felt your body begin to change

You suddenly felt very hollow inside, like something was missing from your body

Several bandages also appeared along your body, covering large sections of your skin

Along with your mutation, several small jars appeared

Upon inspection, you realized that your organs had been stored inside of them

Weeks after the incident occurs, you became more adjusted with your new form

Donnie had run countless experiments on you since your mutation, and he quickly discovered that you must stay close to your organs at all time, or else your body would become highly unstable

As the family medic, Leo is very vigilant about the location of your organs

He had panicked several times when you passed out after accidentally being too far away from your heart

Due to being permanently undead, you no longer had to worry about human mortality

After you became more comfortable with your new body, Leo was more agreeable to your instance on coming on missions with him and his brothers, although he was still very overprotective of you

Whether you're hanging out together in the lair, or out on a mission, he always makes sure that you're never to far away from your organs

Your safety is always his number one priority

[imholtorf]

Change - SUTM parody

In @eternalglitch 's rottmnt fanfic "Like Father, Like Son" when Donnie, Raph, and Mikey arrived at the Battle Nexus, convincing Leo to come back to them and fight back Baron Draxum's control.

_____________________________________

Donnie:

🎵I can make a promise,

I can make a plan

I can make a difference

I can take a stand.

I can make an effort,

If I only understand,

That I…

I can make a change!🎵

Raph:

🎵Gather all my problems,

Gather all my pain.

Take control of what I’m feeling

Patience you understand

I know,

I know you must be hurting.

But, please know that I am with you.

So, you don’t suffer all alone🎵

Mikey:

🎵So you…

You can make a change🎵

(Instrumental)

*Leo/Green glancing at Baron*

Baron Draxum:

🎵They claim to understand

What you cannot know!

The goal to lecture you

As they can relate to you!

So, just go back to your family!

Precious, sweet, little, family!

There’s no time left to lose!

Change is only for the strong,

For the strong…🎵

(Instrumental)

*The collar shocking Green*

Donnie:

🎵You can make it different🎵

Raph:

🎵You can make it right🎵

Mikey:

🎵You can make it better🎵

Trio:

🎵We don’t have to fight!

You can make an effort,

Starting tonight!

‘Cause you…

You can make a change🎵

*Raph grabs the collar and tears it apart despite it shocking him and Leo/Green.*

[justvibinghereyk]

Rise ramblings while I'm suffering with anxiety (part 3)

The Foot Clan search for the pieces of the dark armor and the key that bound the Krang continued steadily, which forced some members of the Hamato clan to sacrifice themselves at some point (Karai started this "tradition") and the Krang (or Crying Titan) ended up becoming a sacred place for the Yokai as it was the source of their lives and powers.

Centuries later, we arrive at Splinter's generation, Hamato Yoshi living with his grandfather and mother, with no news of his father, until his mother had to fulfill her duty, or sacrifice, in keeping watch to make sure that the Shredder didn't return, in other words, that someone from Foot didn't find some piece of the Kuroi Yoroi that they knew where they were. She was probably killed and they got the piece. Yoshi gets trauma, becomes an actor, gains fame, money, gets kidnapped - we know the story.

In contrast to his story, there's Draxum's. No mention of his family, how he got to where he is or whether he really has the title of Baron or if it's just his name, I believe it is, given his importance. He found a prophecy that spoke of the destruction of the Yokai by humans, but the interpretation was wrong. It was probably something like "something from above will destroy everything" and since what was above was humans it wasn't difficult for Draxum to connect the dots, although we now know that this being from above is the Shredder and that everything means both Yokai and humans.

This led to the sheep-man beginning his experiments to create warriors. He begins his experiments in the lab, gaining knowledge that the Empyrian could mutate. Draxum also researches what he could mutate, choosing turtles because they're "build to survival and defense". (Also, at some point Draxum goes to the Battle Nexus and watches a Lou Jitsu match in action, that would give him ideas)

In parallel with this story, we return to that of Yoshi. After being kidnapped by Big Mama and forced to fight in Battle Nexus for several years, he decided to refuse to fight, causing Big Mama to imprison him in a cell for several more years. Their fates cross when Draxum remembers Lou Jitsu and thinks he might be perfect for the job, sending his gargoyles to kidnap the imprisoned champion.

The gargoyles go, kidnap Lou Jitsu (willingly), take him to Baron Draxum, the two talk, turtles get mutated, they fight, the lab explodes, Lou gets mutated and scape. Draxum thought that both Lou Jitsu and the turtles had died in that fire in the laboratory. He became frustrated but didn't give up, returning with his experiments which would soon be perfected again and introduced in the first episode of the series.

For now, that's all I have on the lore of Rise of the TMNT (again, with some headcanons) and I hope to be able to research more curiosities and bring them to you. Thanks for reading this far :)

Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3

[a-random-fan4444]

Grand-Evil-Pa au Master Post

Basic Premise: Casey Jr gets sent back too far by Michelangelo, and lands in the hidden city, more specifically Baron Draxum’s lab a year before the start of the series. We follow the adventures of Casey Jr and his supervillain grandfather during the year in between his arrival and the start of the series.

Main Story Posts:

OG Post - Basic Summary

First Meeting w/ Big Mama + Aunt ???

Huginn and Muninn

Dinner w/ Big Mama at Hueso’s.

Draxum tries to get Casey Jr a new weapon

Dinner w/ Big Mama at Hueso’s Part 2

Asks:

Casey Jr’s age + Draxum’s thoughts on Casey Jr

Casey Jr’s involvement in the mutant experiments.

Draxum’s denial + Casey Jr missing the lab break in

The relationship between Junior & Draxum + some insight into Casey Jr’s thoughts.

Casey Jr & Hamato Ninpo

Butterfly Effect + Repo Mantis’s cat turned daughter.

Reoccurring Memes

New Hamato Ghost

Casey Jr’s thoughts on the gargoyles + Splinter & fighting styles.

Will Casey Jr and the turtles become friends?

Draxum worrying abt Junior’s mental health.

Headcannons from asks:

Casey Jr has feral cat energy

Casey Jr keeps missing the turtle bros + The turtle bros conspiracy on Jr

Casey Jr and Food combination + Casey Jr fights a pizza

Casey Jr & The Gargoyles are roommates

Casey Jr’s compliments sound like insults

Memes:

First round of meme (covering posts 1-3)

Memes for “Dinner with Big Mama (part 1)”

Sneak peek memes

Other

April Fools post 2023: Scrapped Ideas + Random Ideas - Figure out which is which!

Ask Status: Open

Only pre-series question please.

Thanks for @personwtf for the au name!!!

[cringefaillosershowdown]

YOUR COMPETITORS HAVE ARRIVED

time for the announcement, 64 go in, and one will leave THE MOST CRINGEFAIL LOSER OF ALL.

May the best one win, round one will be randomized and move on from there bracketed

And if you would like to make some propaganda… well just make sure to use the tag #cringefaillosershowdown2023 bc I do wanna see it!

Matthomule from The Owl House

Reigen Arataka from Mob Psycho 100 

Berdly from Deltarune

Mike Wheeler from Stranger Things

Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney

Richie Toizer from IT 

Lester Papadopoulos from Trials of Apollo

Asa Mitaka from Chainsaw Man

Dennis Renoylds from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia 

You from Real Life

Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb

Gabriel Agreste from Miraculous

Harry Du Bois from Disco Elysium

George Costanza from Seinfeld

 Izzy Hands from Our Flag Means Death

 Kai Smith from Ninjago

Zane Ro’meave from Mystreet

Larry Butz from Ace Attorney

Rick Shades from Epithet Erased

Travis Valkrum from Mystreet

Dante from Mystreet

Baron Draxum from Rise of the TMNT

Lars Barriga from Steven Universe

Apollo Justice from Ace Attorney

Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney

Sebastian Debeste from Ace Attorney

Shiver from Splatoon 3

The Riddler from DC

Shang Qinghua from The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion

Thunder McQueen from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Abraham “Abe” Lincoln from Clone High

Beetlejuice from Beetlejuice

Cave Johnson from Portal

Leonardo Hamato from Rise of the TMNT

Childe from  Genshin Impact

Dareth from Ninjago

Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter

David Rose from Schitts Creek

GLaDOS from Portal

Giovanni Potage from Epithet Erased

Heath Burns from Monster High

 Henry Emily from FNAF

Jadeite from Sailor Moon

Jedidiah Martin from Camp Here and There

Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai

Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archives

Kai Toshiki from Cardfight Vanguard

Vlad Masters from Danny Phantom

Tsumugi Aoba from Ensemble Star

The Cabbage Man from ATLA

The Maverick from OMORI

Team Rocket from Pokemon

Tang from Lego Monkey Kid

Sou Hiyori from Your Turn To Die

Silver The Hedgehog from Sonic

Shun Kaidou from The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

Sea Hawk from She-ra

Sasha Waybright from Amphibia

Ocean O’Connell Rosenburg from Ride the Cyclone

Zenitsu Agatsuma from Demon Slayer

Percy de Rolo from Critical Roll

Randy Valentine Jade from Dialtown

Seto Kaiba from Yu-gi-oh

ROUND 1 MASTERPOST

ROUND 2 MASTERPOST

ROUND 3 MASTERPOST

ROUND 4 MASTERPOST

ROUND 5 MASTERPOST

ROUND 6 MASTERPOST

[iam-57311]

!!OLD REF!!

will update soon

In case anyone reading my co-parenting AU fic was curious as to what she looks like

But yeah, the goat lady meant to replace Draxum while he's off paying child support in real time >:)

More random info under the cut-

> For the time being she simply introduces herself as "Baroness", choosing not to reveal her first or family name (even with the obvious relation to Baron Draxum)

> She arrived to the Hidden City with this armour she currently wears, though the mask is created at a later date and rarely worn

> More skilled in combat than science/alchemy, though still vaguely skilled in those fields

> Can appear quite lazy and rude but knows how to get what she needs

> Bi party aunt energy

> More than anything else, she's a very impulsive 'fuck it we ball' character, making decisions on a whim, though sticking through with them once they're in action

> This definitely causes certain issues 👀

[cosmoshard]

Ohhh, can you elaborate on the Mutant/Yokai apocalypse au??

Okay funny thing: i wrote this au back in 2021 when Rise was just beginning to air its second season, so I had no way of knowing we were gonna get a movie, nor what its plot would be like, so imagine my surprise when I look back at this au and realize its just an alternate, (much more amateur) version of the Rottmnt movie premise. Now its not plot for plot, there’s a ton of differences OKAY LEGGO!!✨

Like the movie: the turtles are all adults and the leaders of the revolution, with the help of their friends. They are in hiding from the rest of the world because of lack of warning before the invasion/revolution and are slowly fighting back. All the turtles had roles to play: Leo was a fighter pilot/foot-soldier, operating from the air where he had a birds eye view. Rlly leaned into his cocky do-it-his-own-way attitude lol. He also adopted a small yokai girl he found one day on the battlefield.

Raph was the tank, the one always on the front lines, first one there and last one out. He got real tough over the years so he was always using himself as a shield. He also saw a lot of allies die so he became quieter and more stoic. The opposing side called him Walking Death because whenever he arrived he would lay waste to thousands of their kind, mind stuck in savage raph as a way to cope wt all the violence. Raph had a relationship with a mona lisa type character and he has a small kid named enan, who’s a mutant Gecko/turtle hybrid.

Donnie was the brains of the operation as usual, in classic neurodivergent fashion he forgets to take care of himself and holes up in his underground lab where he tries to constantly stay on top of the Yokai’s mystic magic with new inventions. A bad lab accident left his shell and backbone exposed along with destroying his left arm and scarred his side pretty bad. He now has a robot arm and is bionically attuned to his inventions. (I have a more on his inventions but i dont want to spoil it all as i might keep them for future ideas :D)

Mikey is the cook/home-base man. Making sure everything stays running and doing his best to keep the family together. He is fastly becoming more doctor Delicate Touch moreso then Soft Mikey as he used to be. He is also gets to babysit the most often cuz he’s always at home 🙄/lh

April became their resident Medical Expert and has appointed herself as Donnie’s daily nagger to get sleep and food. She also ends up being a sort of therapist for the resistance but doesnt give herself the same luxury even tho the bros offer many times. Because she stays in base most of the time her and Mikey end up shouldering the same responsibilities and they understand each other on a deeper emotional level then most of the family.

Other Characters Roles:

Shredder is back and is the leader of the yokai’s, but is distant and only using them to conquer the world and become emperor. Baron Draxum is his Star General and the one mostly in the spotlight, therefore directly influencing the yokai below them, (and any major decisions they came up with.) Big mama demanded to be called Empress and she commands most of the army

A couple more things✨

Shredder’s whole plan is to reach the core of the planet to find the source/core of all mystic energy (which was later revealed to be canon!?? in the s2 finale wt the empyrean spring beneath the hidden city.) the resistance has to find it before shredder can so they can turn the tide of the war.

That’s basically it, other than plot points, thank you for asking!!! It took a little bit to make it coherent because i write in bullet notes lol, if ya want to know we can dm or reblog chain :3

[ocmakerofcanada]

The Rewritten Story of Alejandra the Chimera Axolotl ( part 1 )

I’ve rewritten her backstory a little bit, and I have been adding some new things that I would love to show you the first three chapters. I don’t know how many parts I’m going to make of this, but I hope you will all like this tho.

~Chapter 1~

Within Lake Xochimilco in southern Mexico City, There was a secret Aztec water temple hidden in Xochimilco's own little jungle where the skeleton of a great Aztec warrior ( or yaotlakatl as they were called back then ) named Mahuizoh sat there upon a stone throne with his all powerful Macuahuitl in hand. Not only was this temple his home, but it was also the home of Axolotls who lived within the deep waters of the temple. One of these Axolotls was a baby Chimera who would visit the skeleton every day. Looking up to him like he was part of her family. One day, the baby Chimera was just relaxing with Mahuizoh when there was suddenly a light coming from the water before a mystical whirlpool had been created from it. Flushing away the baby Chimera and her family of Axolotls.

That glowing light was actually a portal leading to The Hidden City, and the baby Chimera would be separated from her family before being brought to the lab of Baron Draxum. Where he was planning on turning animals into war machines against mankind along with the DNA of Lou Jitsu ( aka Splinter/Hamato Yoshi ). This plan ( of course ) does not end well, and Lou Jitsu saves all of the animals, as well as 4 mutated baby turtles after battling Draxum and gets mutated into a Rat man. As for the baby Chimera, she was very frightened as many animals ran past her. She tried to hide, but couldn't when the building was about to crumble and be completely destroyed, and she would even get herself mutated as well. Thankfully she managed to escape the lab, but finded herself lost within The Hidden City as a small child now with no home or family...

~Chapter 2~

Within the past 13 years, the baby Chimera Axolotl has grown into her teens and has been a bit of a troublemaker around the streets. She doesn't really mean it in a bad way though, but it's meant for her survival instincts since she was not as strong as any Yokai in The Hidden City. Not only that, but she always felt like she didn't belong here, yet she never knew why since she had forgotten about her past overtime.

One day, She discovered some random box, and took it with her to her little hide away. When she opened the box, she founded a bunch of human things and dvds ( I feel like they would mostly be anime or telenovelas ). The more she interacted with these things, the more she slowly grew an obsession for humans. They had lives that were more interesting then what the Chimera Axolotl has had her whole life down in The Hidden City. She wanted to live amongst these humans, but she didn't knew how or when that would ever happen.

As the months go by, the Chimera Axolotl was doing what she usually does when she spotted something unusual in the distance. When she arrived at the scene, she could've sworn she saw something or someone going through a portal of some sort. While investigating the portal, there was a explosion followed by a large swarm of bugs ( which are the later named Oozesquitos ), and the Chimera Axolotl would find herself getting scooped away by the swarm as they flew into the portal to who knows where. Before she knew it, she would find herself in the air of a whole new world she was in before falling and landing onto the roof of a tall building. When she got a hold of her barrings, the Chimera would find herself in the city of New York where many humans live. This was the start of the Chimera Axolotl's new life outside of The Hidden City...

~Chapter 3~ ( this one is quite long, just a heads up )

The Chimera Axolotl couldn't belive that she was actually in the human world, but she couldn't even befriend them because she didn't looked anything like a human being. So she was forced into hiding, but she had to look all around the city for what her new home should be. After a while, the Chimera Axolotl would take shelter in an underwater cave which seemed to be an abandoned hideout. She didn't come out too often, but the Chimera would sneak her way into the city to gather up food and entertainment. As much as she was enjoying her new life a bit, she realized that she was just as lonely as her old life back in the Hidden City. The poor thing wants to show humans that she is more then just a walking salamander, but she wasn't sure how.

A few months pass, and the Chimera Axolotl would gain enough confidence to actually visit the city without being caught by humans. One night, she was up on the roof eating some pizza ( her favorite being Seafood Pizza ) when she heard something going on down the streets. Curiously, she would sneak herself away to see what was happening. When she got down to the scene, she saw four turtles around her age fighting an evil mutant. Not only that, but they also had powerful mystical weapons. This amazes the Chimera so much, that she gets an idea; If she starts fighting evil mutants too, maybe she could be respected by all of the humans of NYC.

And so, she would gather everything she could find from the internet ( like fighting videos or Lou Jitsu movie clips ) and would begin to train herself. It would take her months, but she would manage to get stronger, and would test out her natural abilities during her training. She would even make herself her own hero outfit based on all of the human anime she had been watching. The Chimera Axolotl, now with new upgrades, would test out her fighting skills on her first evil mutant. It almost went well, until her enemy got the upper hand since she was smaller. Just then, the turtles showed up and the Chimera escaped. She watched from the shadows as they would then take the credit for taking down the evil mutant before a human friend of theirs showed up. The group of 5 then left to go celebrate over pizza and the chimera couldn't help but listen to them. The last thing she heared from the turtles was how proud their father was going to be ( or something like that ).

Later that night, the Chimera Axolotl sat around in jealousy. She was so envious of those turtles. Not only were they such better fighters, but they even had a human friend who was not afraid of them, and they've got a parent of their own. This was the breaking point, because she was so sick and tired of being lonely. She needed to become the better hero so that she could have friends and family of her very own. She then had an idea. That same night, she snuck away into Montes Auction House while it was closed. Looking for a badass weapon. And that's when she found it. In her hands, was an ancient Macuahuitl with wood carved designs and sharp Obsidian blades. ( The same exact Macuahuitl used by the Aztec warrior, Mahuizoh ) She was so amazed by the weapon in her hands that she knew she found the right one. Just then, she heard something outside, and quickly fled the building without a trace. The Chimera Axolotl would then fight against her first evil mutant yet again, this time, actually kicking its butt. It was at this point where she thought that the final step would be to give herself an actual name since she never had one, and decided to rename herself as Alejandra: The Defender of Mankind...

[yyadream]

Previous | Next

Splinter and the kids arrived to what they thought was meeting April’s parent. Only to find out they are there to help redeem Baron Draxum.

Leo: I totally called that one, so loser pay up!

Both Donnie and Miwa angrily gave Leo their money.

Splinter: Oh no! I didn’t make my famous green bean casserole for my mortal enemy!

Mikey: Come on dad, he isn’t our enemy anymore. He’s our family now, so once we give all our loving family love, I know we can warm up his heart.

Tang Shen: Oh, thank god, I thought this was going to be another one of your parent trap situations to get me and Splinter back together again.

Splinter turned around to see his ex-wife Tang Shen.

Donnie: Well this is going to end badly.

Everyone nodding in agreement.

Splinter: Tang Shen!? Miwa, I thought I told you not to invite your mom!

Miwa: She wasn’t home when we got there.

Tang Shen: You told my daughter not to invite me!

Splinter: Miwa is also my daughter too or did you forget!!

Mikey: Mom! Dad! Please stop, I invited mom. Not only is this to redeem Draxum but for us to finally have a wonderful family dinner.

Mikey: So I want everyone on their best behavior.

Draxum: Michelangelo, how many more people are you inviting?

Tang Shen: Oh my, who are you?

Draxum: I am Baron Draxum, I was once a fearsome warrior alchemist. But right now, I’m not sure anymore.

Tang Shen: Well I am, Tang Shen. I’m Miwa’s mother and ex-wife to the famous Lou Jitsu. I know my son would get you right back on your feet.

Draxum: Wait! What! ex-wife!? Why would the rat leave such a beautiful woman like.

Tang Shen giggle: Oh you!

Tang Shen whispered to Miwa: Hey Miwa, I think I might make this man your new dad.

Miwa: You do know he’s a yokai, right?

Tang Shen: Hey, it didn’t stop me from marrying your and that’s not going to stop me from dating this man.

Miwa: I think I’m going to be sick.

Mikey: Alright everyone let set up the table and eat cuz I am starving!

———

*Artist Note*

This part of is based off a skit I made for my TikTok account. I also wasn’t expecting to write a second part but I did it because of my TikTok post. I’m think of one more part.

[purple-tello]

Aaaand one more. Just for fun.

Trigger warnings: Implied experimentation, and dehumanizing language.

Report 07: Plea Deal

Reported by Agent Bishop in Facility 92.

The following conversation was recorded between myself and Subject Two - "Baron Draxum." Two had requested to see me upon hearing of the capture of Three and Four. One has done the same, but due to it resorting to violence, was sedated until further notice.

B: Good evening, Two. You asked to see me?

Two: Don't refer to me with such a lowly name. I know you have the turtles. Free them now.

B: The turtles in question are not legal citizens of the United States of America, and by their own admission, not citizens of any known country. They do not have the right to be released.

Two: They're both children. You cannot in good conscience perform your disgusting experiments on children!

B: You have a heightened interest in these two subjects. Care to tell us why?

Two: Two?

B: Yes. We were attacked earlier today by seven assailants. Two were taken into custody while the rest escaped.

Two: Which two? Who do you have?

B: None of your concern. I was informed you were willing to provide us information?

Two: Yes. It is the mutagen you want, correct?

B: If I were to hypothetically say yes, what are you suggesting?

Two: I created that mutagen. I created those turtles, and that rat man you call, "One." They are my creations, I own the right to call them such.

B: ... Without legal documentation I'm afraid that claim is void.

Two: You've seen their white blood cell counts, and their metabolism. I designed them to be the perfect soldiers, capable of demolishing your armies.

B: Can I count this as your confession to treason against the United States of America?

Two: I'll give you the mutagen.

B: Beg your pardon?

Two: I will show you how I created it, how I perfected it. But in exchange you have to release the turtles, and cease your hunt for them and for the O'Neil girl.

B: You're not in the place to be demanding anything of us, especially the full pardon of a US criminal.

Two: Think about it. Would you rather waste your time and resources trying to recreate the mutagen from their DNA, a process where extracting it won't be easy even if they don't resist, or would you rather have it created for you perfectly in your own lab? You could sell it, or use it on your own soldiers, whatever it is you wanted the mutagen for. But only if the turtles, the rat, and the girl and her family walk free.

B: I cannot promise or agree to anything. I will inform my supervisor of your offer.

Two was then escorted back to its cell with the first sign of civility since its capture. This suggests a familial connection to Three and Four, similar to that of One. My supervisor has permitted the plea, and Two will be escorted into the lab with Three and Four tomorrow to extract the mutagen and recreate it under intense supervision. Two's deal did not apply to the rabbit seen attacking our guards, nor the other two human suspects known as, "Sunita," and, "Cassandra Jones," both of whom have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Baxter Stockboy's assistance has proven fruitless, and he and his family have since been relocated to prevent any further interference from him.

My supervisor has lined up a buyer to observe the creation of the mutagen. Big Mama will arrive at the building in the afternoon with two assistants. Human history in the making, and we will be the first to see it.

[familyofpaladins]

The Pizza Game (Chp 4)

Chapter 4: Mikey Orders a Pizza

Chapter 1 | <Chapter 3 | X | Chapter 5>

Ao3 link

Summary:

Mikey opens a time gateway. (But not the gateway you're thinking of) words: 3423

Notes:

Bit of a time skip from the last chapter! We are still in Angstville. :3 I rewrote sections of this chapter like 3 times, so I hope the final result is okay

Michelangelo sat in the Middle of his room, books and scrolls surrounding him.

I can do this. I can do this. He repeated to himself as he took a steadying breath. (He ignored his trembling hands).

For all the years and scrolls and books he had searched for and researched, creating a Time Gateway wasn’t actually that complicated.

But years it had taken.

---

Mikey had demanded that Draxum help him find the time scepter or relics. Draxum had refused, but only because he knew that the items Michelangelo wanted no longer existed, if they ever did in the first place.

Then Mikey begged Draxum to help him look for it anyway or for any way to get his brother back. It was in the wake of Raphael’s death, and his determination was the most alive Mikey had looked in months. He needed to find some possible way to fix things. That was when Draxum caved and agreed to help him find a way to create a Time Gateway.

Draxum only knew about the theory of them in general, he could not perform the ritual himself. But he knew they were risky and usually required multiple masters to have enough power to perform one.

Mikey didn’t let any of that deter him.

Mikey was then told of where they could possibly obtain the knowledge necessary to learn how to make a time gateway. Draxum and Mikey told everyone that they were going to complete Michelangelo’s mystic training to become a master. That was true, it was one of the reasons that Draxum agreed to the search, that in doing so they would also finish his mystic training at the remaining strongholds of Mystic Teachings.

And then they had left. Over the next two years Michelangelo and Draxum found the texts to learn how to make a time gateway together, though Draxum was still wary of it, claiming the process to be very risky, both for the casters, and for time itself.

However, on the journey they found something else.

They had found that the empyrean had actually been created by the Krang’s arrival centuries ago. They found a way to mystically reverse engineer it to push back the Krang.

They had made headway over the next couple of years in the fight against the krang and gained land and resources. With the war finally turning in their favor, Mikey had other things to focus on and his plans for the time gateway were pushed to the side, even though his grief had dulled but never disappeared.

And then the krang found a way to negate the mystic attacks. The war had stalled for another 2 years, and they lost Baron Draxum during that time.

Then the krang found a way to turn the mystic attack against them, and they scrambled to hold their ground.

And then Michelangelo lost another brother, and gained a new reason to try for a time gateway.

---

According to everything he read on the matter, the only things needed to create a Gateway was: Focus and Conviction set on a clear point in time of when you wanted the gateway to open to, and an immense amount of energy to tunnel through the stream of time.

(That last part was what Barry had been worried about the most. It’ll be fine, don’t think about it.)

And okay. It was a little more complicated than just thinking about When you wanted the gateway to open. There was a lot that had to deal with sensing the flow of time, and following it back (or forward but that was more complicated) and staying connected within your own timeline and not fracturing it and possibly destroying your own time line in the process before even getting there.

Draxum had worried over that too, saying the gateway wasn’t worth the risk. But he wasn’t here to stop him, Mikey thought bitterly. Neither was his most overprotective brother. Nor the brother who had the most to say about the possibilities of time travel.

That was why Mikey had to practice now, get used to the flow of linear time, and how to reach back in it. Reach back, open a gate, and pull something (some One) Back.

He couldn’t worry about the possibility of only being able to do it once. He had to be able to do it twice. So this first attempt was just practicing. If he messed it up, he didn’t want to get stuck in a time loop of his brother dying. (Don’t think about it, don’t think about it. Focus.)

He had to focus on something else. Some other time. Some other time with something he could put enough conviction in to focus on…

Well. They certainly had joked about it enough.

Mikey was going to order a pizza.

He raised his hands. Moved them in the specific pattern the scrolls said to. Felt the flow of time around him, focused on When he was wanting to go, and Reached.

It was a weird feeling. Cold rushed past him, but there was a warm chord of time he was following that connected to when he wanted to go. Trying to expand the cord into a tunnel felt like standing at the bottom of a waterfall and trying to swim upwards.

He pulled a little more from the well of mystic energy he had inside to push forward (backward? FOCUS).

He could do this. He had to do this.

He needed his brothers back.

He had to be able to do this. Just a little more.

A little more.

Come on, come on!

He could feel the push and pull of the time stream.

“Mikey?”

He just had to keep pushing, put just a little more energy into it-

“Mikey?!”

Focus. He had to focus. This couldn’t work if he was distracted.

“What are you doing?! Mikey stop!” The pleas of his (last remaining) brother were ignored. He had to FOCUS-

“Michelangelo! STOP!” The cold (hot? It felt like they were burning) hands that shook his shoulders sent him out of the timestream, faster than he had entered it. He gasped like he’d actually been holding his breath. In the dying light of the orange gateway, that had been about the size of a quarter (that was all the bigger it had gotten?) he saw Leonardo’s concerned and slightly panicked face.

Michelangelo glared at him.

“Why did you do that?! Why did you stop me?! I was So Close!” he growled. (It was a lie)

“So close to what? Mikey, what were you even doing?! Do you see what it did to you?”

“I was-“ He cut himself off. How could he explain this? “I’m fine!”

“Michelangelo. No you’re not.” Leo gently took Mikey’s hands, and he looked down at them.

There were cracks that covered his hands and spread up to his elbows. They were bleeding ever so slightly.  Well, Shit. That hadn’t ever happened before. He hadn’t noticed it at all before, but now he could feel the pain seeping into his limbs.

“Oh…. Ow.”

“Yeah ‘ow’” Leo sighed. “Sit on the bed, big man.” Leo said as he guided Mikey into sitting.

Mikey stared at his hands. Was this what Draxum had been so worried about? Pulling from the source of his mystic energy, his ninpo, and using too much it was actually pulling him apart too?

“Let me see your hands” Leo said, kneeling in front of him, holding bandages and other medical supplies. When had he stepped away to grab them? Mikey rested his hands on his brother’s metal one (Mikey had been on his journey when Leo lost the real one. He tried not to feel guilty about not being there). The movement stretched the cracks and he winced.

He couldn’t help but think how 20 years ago he might have asked for some pain relief, but it was a rare commodity now, only used in extreme cases, and this was far from the worst pain he’d ever muscled through.

They sat in silence for a few minutes as Leo wiped the blood away, and applied a very thin amount of antiseptic to the cracks.

“So you gonna tell me what you were doing, that caused this?” Leo asked conversationally as he began to wrap his hands. Leo was looking at the wrappings, but Mikey still avoided his brother’s face and looked around the room. It looked like a whirlwind had swept through and threw all his books and belongings every which way. He remembered the feeling of cold sweeping past him and wondered if maybe a whirlwind HAD swept through.

His brother was still looking at the bandages he was wrapping around his arms, giving him space, but Mikey knew he was still waiting on an answer. Where to start?

“I was…” Mikey chuckled wetly, “I was trying to order a pizza.” His voiced cracked on the last word.

Leo turned his head at that, eyebrow raised in confusion, but the corner of his mouth was twitching at the remark.  “You were… ordering a pizza?”

“In a way…” Mikey chuckled before sighing.

Leonardo was done with the bandages and sat on the bed, shoulder to shoulder with his brother. Mikey leaned into him. 35(34?) years old, and he still leaned on his older brother.

“Do you remember that one time we were talking about pizza?”

“Gonna have to be more specific there, Miguel.” Mikey butted his head against the shoulder he was leaning on.

“When we were talking about summoning pizzas?”

“Haha, yeah I remember that! And old Barry said you’d need a dimension filled with pizza for it to work? Don’t tell me you found a pizza dimension” Leo chuckled.

“No, no pizza dimension, sorry,” Mikey hummed.

“Darn.”

Mikey fiddled with the edge of his bandages before he spoke again.

“And do you remember how Donnie said it was too bad we couldn’t just travel back in time to get one?” He felt his brother stiffen. “And then Draxum said that time travel was possible but you needed a time scepter or a gateway, but that pizza wasn’t worth the risk of messing it up?”

Mikey could feel Leo looking at him. Mikey couldn’t look back at him, kept going, knowing if he stopped, he wouldn’t be able to start again.

“And, and do you remember how me and Barry were gone for two years to complete my mystic training, after-“ deep breath”-after Raph died?”

“Yeah?” Mikey could hear the confusion and concern in his voice.

“I- I asked Draxum to help me find a time scepter or whatever, but he said they didn’t exist, but I kept asking about anyway to go back. And then he agreed to teach me how to make a time gateway.”

“Mikey.”

‘I- I just wanted to get Raph back!” Mikey plowed on, “You and Donnie were so angry and upset! Without Raph you were both throwing yourselves into fights and I was afraid I’d lose you too! And and I wanted him back too! So I made Barry teach me! On that trip I found all the books I needed, but it still took time to learn, and then we found out about the empyrean and we started winning and I- I stopped working on the gateway, trying to finish the fight with the Krang! And I forgot about it! And then- and now- now Donnie is dead too-” Mikey was sobbing by the end, voice cracking so bad the words barely made it out.

“Oh Mikey” Leo breathed, eyes wet, turned and wrapped him in tight hug, letting Mikey sob into his chest.

It’d been only two weeks since Donatello’s death.

“I want our brothers back, Leo. How are we supposed to do this without them?”

“I don’t know Mikey. I don’t know” And Oh. Oh shit. Leo was crying now too.

Mikey knew that Leo took Raph’s death very hard. They all did, of course, but Leo especially. They’d been co leading missions and supply runs and just watching each other’s backs. When one couldn’t handle the load, the other took it up. But then Raph was gone and Mikey himself had gone on a Mystic Journey for almost two years leaving them alone. So Leo and Donnie had relied on each other even more than before. And now Donnie was gone too. Mikey should have been more surprised by how well Leo had been holding himself together.

Mikey now realized why his brother had looked so panicked when he stopped him from opening the gateway. He didn’t want to lose his last brother.

“Shit, I’m sorry Leo” he cried and hugged his brother harder.

“Shhh Mikey” Leo whispered and rubbed soothing circles on his shell. He didn’t say it was okay, because nothing was okay.

They sat in silence for a while longer. Part of him was ashamed for crying so much when they were already surrounded by so much death and destruction. The other part of him (Dr. Feelings? Hadn’t heard from Him in a while) said that this was needed, that keeping everything locked up would just cause problems later.

They held each other and shared their grief for a few more minutes. Then they finally untangled themselves, and went back to leaning shoulder to shoulder.

“So this,” Leo pointed to his damaged arms, “was caused from you trying to open a time gateway?”

“Yeah,” Mikey sniffled.

“Guess this is why Draxum said you needed a team of sorcerers huh.”

“Yeah, trying to push the gateway through time was pretty tough. Guess it was a good thing you stopped me, I hadn’t even noticed the cracks.” Mikey rubbed at his arms, the more they sat there the heavier and more sore they felt.

“Even though you said you were close?” Leo asked, concern once again on his face.

“I wasn’t. Not really,” Mikey admitted. “I’d say I only got about… 60%? of the way there? But I was…. Also trying to go farther back than I really needed to.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wasn’t kidding, earlier, when I said I was trying to get a pizza.”

Leo raised a brow in question.

“I was practicing. Seeing if I could even do it at all. Figure out how it feels to navigate the time stream. We joked about it so much,” Mikey chuckled wetly, “I thought I’d practice by pulling a pizza from the past.”

“Oh my god. You really did try to order a pizza via time travel” Leo said face palming, but Mikey saw a hint of smile, so he’d call it a win. “Wait, you were just going to pull the pizza through, not you go through the gateway itself?”

“Yeah that was the plan, though I’m not sure if it would have worked like that. That’s why I was testing it. I thought… I thought if I could just- just go back in time to right before they died, that maybe I could bring them here. Nothing else would be changed, we’d just get them back in the here and now.”

“Mikey, I’m not sure that would have worked anyway.”

“And why not?” Mikey demanded. He had worked too hard, to be told it was a fruitless endeavor (even if he already knew it).

“Because they did die,” Mikey refused to look at the purple and red bandanas tied around the sword handle that proved it. “And if you would manage to bring them here… It means you’d have pulled them from some other Time line, breaking it into branching timelines.”

“You sound like Donnie,” Mikey grumbled. Leo just smiled sadly.

“And if you did do that,” Leo continued, “you would have just made another timeline where we still lose a brother. And I don’t think either of them would want that.”

Oh.

Mikey hadn’t thought about it like that.

He still didn’t like it.

“I suppose you’re going to order me to not attempt it again?” Mikey asked, expecting a resounding “you bet your shell!”

But he was met with silence.

“Leo?”

“Well, I can’t really order you to do anything. But… I… don’t think you should try again, for pizza or our brothers,” Mikey pretended not to notice the tremor in his voice on that last word. “It seems too much of a risk for you to lose yourself in trying, and my Ninpo isn’t strong enough to help either.”

Leo paused and stared at his hands.

“Master Splinter used to say something about not wallowing in bad things of the past, that we just have to make do with what we have now. That all our experiences, good and bad, help to shape who we are.”

Mikey could remember his dad saying something like that. He thinks it had originally been said about his own fate of being forced to fight in the Battle Nexus and then captured by Draxum and mutated into a rat. And that while those events were awful for him, he wouldn’t change it for the world, because it had also given him his sons.

“So you’re saying that if we go and start trying to fix all the bad things in the past, we might miss out on the good things that also come from them?”

“Now you’re getting it,” Leo smiled at him.

“Like the finding out about the empyrean when I left after…?”

“Yeah. It helped us push back the Krang, and regain some area and resources.”

“But it didn’t last for very long…” Mikey said dejectedly.

“No, I guess it didn’t, but maybe it gave us enough time and space to find another way to finish them off for good. We still have hope that we can turn things around. As long as there’s hope that we can fix things here in the present, we shouldn’t use time travel. That… time travel will be the last possible course of action, Okay?”

“Okay, as long as you promise me you won’t die too,” Mikey knew that Leo couldn’t really promise that. But he needed his brother. Needed to know he wouldn’t throw himself into danger recklessly in vengeance or self-sacrificially.

“I promise to do my best to stay alive, as long as you do too.” That was really the best he could ask for in the situation.

“Ha, I can do that.” Mikey huffed a laugh. He continued, “So ordering pizza via time travel is a last resort, huh?”

Leo laughed the first real good laugh Mikey had heard in a long time, “Is that what-“

“What you said 15 years ago when we first had the conversation about time travel? Yep!” Mikey popped the p.

“Oh real funny old man!” Leo laughed, and locked an arm around his younger brother and gave him a good noogie.

“Old Man! Have you seen the wrinkles you’ve got!” Mikey said, affronted, while he failed to wiggle out of the hold.

“Not as many as you! And all that grey hair!”

“Excuse you! This is not hair, NOR grey! And it makes me looked distinguished, thank you very much!” Mikey said with a flip of said hair. (It was actually algae that had grown while on his mystic journey with Draxum. He had been going to get rid of it, but the rolling laughter it gave Donnie at seeing the look of jealousy on Leo’s face, that Mikey got to have Hair when he didn’t… well, Mikey decided to keep it).

“It makes you look like an old man!” Leo laughed.

“You’re just jealous.” Mikey sang.

“I am not! I-“ Leo was interrupted by his communicator beeping.

“Sensei?” The high pitched voice of a 12 year old Casey asked, “Have you found Master Michelangelo yet?”

“OH RIGHT! Yeah Casey, I got him, be there in a minute!”

“Understood, Sensei!” The call ended. Mikey raised an eyebrow.

“What was that about? And Yeesh, that kid needs to relax. He knows he doesn’t have to call you that all the time right?”

“I’ve TRIED to tell him that! But the kid just won’t have it,” Leo sighed, throwing his hands up in the air, but he had a fond smile on his face. “And he made something he wants to show us, and I was supposed to come get you. We better get going.”

As Mikey followed his brother out of the room, he thought to himself, that as long as he had people he cared about, like his brother and Casey and April, around, that everything would be okay. He would keep looking forward.

<<Beginning | <Prev | | Next>