#i DEFINITELY wasn't projecting a bit of that tiredness onto the characters

[glitched-username]

Mystic Training

The autism won and just spent the past couple days powering through writing a 10 page tmnt g/t fanfic like my life depended on it. This is mostly self indulgent because I would've loved to see mystic Raph more in the show and also would've love to see more on how the power works

cw: there's a bit of messing around with mystic Raph's mouth for a couple paragraphs but mostly in the way to how a dentist poke's around someone's mouth

Word count: 4522

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“You did WHAT with your powers?!” Mikey practically pounced on Raph’s shoulders as the four walked back to the lair.

“I know, right?! It was the craziest thing I've ever seen! You should've been there!”

“I would've loved to but Mikey and I were forced to handle that backstabbing, tried-to-steal-my-tech, traitorous, smug -”

“Man! I wish it was me and Raph on the roof, I would kill to see a giant super powered mystic Raph!” Mikey felt Raph stiffen his shoulders.

“Mikey… Leo had to get thrown off the roof for me to catch him like that…” Donnie paused mid rant at Raph's words, trailing a few paces behind.

“Okay, but if you did it once, can't you do it again? Unless there's a sort of quote unquote mystic cool down that prevents you from using that full power, there shouldn't be anyone stopping you now.” That caught the attention of the others as eyes moved from Donnie to Raph expectantly. 

“Huh? I mean, I don't even know HOW I did it, just that I… had to? I don't know, it was mostly just a feeling I guess.” Raph sheepishly grinned, rubbing the back of his head. 

Mikey just dramatically slid off, landing on his feet in a slouch. “Awww man… oh wait! What if I-”

“You're not throwing yourself off a building to see if it works.” Raph grabbed Mikey by the back of his shell and tucked him under his arms to keep from running off.

“Hey! It was a joke! Leo, Donnie tell Raph I was joking!” Mikey playfully squirmed in Raph’s grip as they started moving again.

Leo nudged Mikey’s side as Donnie took the lead up front “I don't know, you sounded pretty serious there~”

“Leo’s correct, and I'm the only one allowed to be funny in this family”

“You betray your own brother?! How could you!” Mikey threw his arms out and slumped forward. 

The four continued to make their way back home, Leo continuing to brag about how not only was he “right about spider lady” but also that he managed to make some killer portals. Donnie was mostly muttering to himself and fidgeting with his gauntlet about manufacturing artificial spider webs. And despite the theatrics of it all, Mikey was content with snuggling up to Raph’s side, more exhausted than anything but not being able to fall asleep.

Raph stayed a bit quieter than usual but he was probably just as drained as the rest.

It wasn't long before they made it back home, each splitting off to their own rooms for the night. Raph dropped a now sleeping Mikey off before all but collapsing out in his own room. Sleep was restless, was in and out, almost nonexistent and contained no dreams but it was something.

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“UP AND AT ‘EM RAPHALA!” 

“WHAT-HUH?!” Raph’s body practically launched itself out of bed and onto the floor before he could even realize he was awake. He pushed himself off the floor, now sitting up, looking at a now very excited Donnie with eye bags stronger than what his mask can cover up. Like he was giddily waiting for someone to ask. “What happened?!”

“Oh, Raph good you're awake! Well we have a BIG day scheduled for YOU mister. I've prepped for you to get 30 minutes to get yourself ready, dressed, eat, shower etcetera and THEN we are gonna be headed to the main atrium where we are gonna do nothing BUT crack this infuriating figurative mystic code of your power!” 

Raph, who was barely paying attention to what Donnie was saying, mostly just falling back asleep now that there's no threat, suddenly shot awake when Donnie said that last bit. “My power? Well, normally you know I'm all down for training, but this early?” 

“Yes, of course this early because we have so many different factors both physical and… eugh… emotional… that could each individually play a part in understanding what you do that activates that, to quote Mikey, giant super powered mystic Raph.” Donnie was now right by Raph grabbing his arm and trying to lead him out the room. “Now come on, you now have 28 minutes to get ready before we start!”

Raph just stood up and pulled his arm back, resulting in Donnie falling to the ground. 

“Relax D, we just got done fighting two boss villains, I think we need a day.” Raph stepped a bit closer, now noticing the dark purple eye bags. “You too, did you spend all last night working on this “schedule” thing?”

“Long exasperated groan, why yes my dearest brother, I did, because apparently I'm more interested in understanding your own powers than you.” Donnie gave a huff, standing indignantly at that last bit. “Like come on, you barely talked about it outside of “I don't know how it works”, I know if any of us developed some crazy power we didn't know how to use or control you would be the FIRST to want them to figure it out.”

“Yeah but that was different, we knew nothing about our powers back then, this is just an added thing to the stuff I do know how to do.”

“And you're telling me you DON’T want to know how to use a power like that, one that has been shown to have incredible strength and durability from what I've heard?”

“Yes because I'm totally fine with what I have now and do NOT need to use that powerup.”

“I don't understand, then you should want to know how it works so you can choose to avoid activating it if you want-”

“-Just… stop, I don't wanna talk about it this early in the morning”

There were several moments of silence and Raph was about to tell Donnie to go to bed again before “Well, alright then, my offer still stands and I will be in the main atrium if you wish to participate.” And with that, Donnie turned on his heels and walked out at a brisk pace

Raph just rubbed his fingers against his temple and flopped back onto his bed. He didn't sleep, staying lost in thought.

An hour later he mustered the strength to pull himself back up, getting his mask, wrappings and reluctantly his tonfas and exited his room.

“You're out of bed late~” Raph looked and to the left of his room was Leo, who’s lax attitude immediately set off Raph’s ‘Leo’s planning something’ alarm.

“Yeah, hardly, the Mad Scientist woke me up an hour ago for some… science thing.” 

“Eh, you know what I mean.” Leo leaned his weight on Raph's shoulder, “Actually, speaking of said ‘Mad Scientist’ and he seemed pre-tty ticked that you were “fine with living in ignorance of your own capabilities'' and is mostly just ranting to himself. Sicced Mikey on him before heading up here to get the nerd to cool off.”

Raph took a deep breath, “I didn't mean to upset him, I just… don't think that this should be the top priority with all the oozquitos free again.” Leo just hummed, cartoonishly nodding his head.

“Yeah of course, and it definitely has nothing to do with how you already know how this new powerup works or anything.” He confidently said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“W-What?! How did you-  mean, I have no idea what you're talking about.” Raph folded his arms, suddenly finding the right side of the lair to be extremely interesting to look at.

“Well, I mean if that little bit of Shakespeare didn't give it away then that whole beef with Donnie definitely did.” Raph slumped at being caught. “I mean, you're telling me that you don't want to know how a power THAT awesome works? Yeah I'm not buying it. You love showing off during training and fights. So spill. Don’t make me drag Mikey over here, we both know it’s impossible to keep secrets from those puppy eyes.” Leo took a step back from Raph, waiting for a response.

“... Promise you won’t tell them?” Raph barely whispered.

“I’m not your parent, not the older brother and most importantly, not a narc, I’m not gonna rat you out. I don’t know, take it as… a blood pact, except replace the “blood” with “falling off one of the biggest buildings in New York”.”

Raph huffed but looked at and away from Leo rapidly, wringing his hands together trying to string together his next sentence. Leo was waiting, now leaned onto the wall.

“I just… don't want to hurt you guys…” The confession finally startled Leo, breaking the chill guy persona.

“Woah woah woah, what are you talking about? Hurt us?” Leo’s eyes widened “Wait, is one of us almost dying, really what causes the powerup?” It was now Raph’s turn to be shocked.

“No! No. it’s, I don't know, it took me so long to figure out how to get used to my own strength, even with the tonfas. I thought it got to where I had total control of my strength and powers.” Raph looked down at his hands, avoiding Leo. “And then that whole thing happened and it felt different than what I'm used to with the tonfas. Like it was my body but also not?” He looked at Leo. “I was going to grab you during the fall but I could barely even feel the wind so I thought that if I grabbed you…I wouldn't be able to tell… and I’d hurt you worse than what the fall would.”

Something dark flashed over Leo’s eyes for the briefest of moments before he quirked a lopsided smile, trying to lighten the mood. “Oh come on, big guy, you know we know you'd never hurt us, at least not in a way that requires the med bay.” He mostly muttered that last part to himself. 

“Yeah, but what about on accident, it's happened before!” 

“Do you know how many times I've accidentally hurt myself on the skate ramp? Way more than the times you've hurt us, and we STILL keep that thing around! And you know what we do to stop getting injured on the skate ramp?” Leo was now back to his smug self, nudging Raph's side with a smirk on his face “Come on, it's one of your top 5 favorite words… starts with a T~”

Raph gave a defeated huff and soft smile “We train… Man, when did you decide to be the mature one?”

“Hey! I’m ALWAYS the mature one! I’m just making sure that our fearless leader doesn’t lose that title over being scared about nothing!” Leo wrapped his arm around Raph's and began to lead him to the atrium, “now let's go tell the Egg Head the good news that we don't need his excel spreadsheet of “reasons for Raph's powerup" !"

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“Tell me EXACTLY how it works! I have the spreadsheet up to compare how correct any of my hypotheses are.”

All four brothers gathered in the atrium, and Raph was struggling to not feel singled out especially when he was in fact singled out. He took a breath.

“I don't know how to really phrase it? I know that I'm able to do it and there's nothing holding me back, but just that there used to be something holding me back? And now that the thing holding me back is gone… I can just… do it now? Sorry, that's just the best way I can phrase it.”

There was a beat of silence before Donnie powered up his gauntlet and frantically began scrolling through it. It took Leo and Mikey a few seconds later to figure it out though.

“Waitwaitwait, was you saving me what got rid of that “thing holding you back”?”

Raph silently nodded. Mikey just threw his arms around Raph the best he could.

“Awww! You hear that? Raph loves us so much he got a new power from it!” Raph just chuckled, wrapping his arms around Mikey. 

“‘Course Raph loves you guys, no matter how much you annoy me…” Raph buried his head into Mikey’s shoulders who in turn gave a few happy chirps.

Leo playfully wrapped an arm around Raph. “Or it happened cause if anyone's gonna be able to take me out it's gonna be one of you, not some freaky goat man.”

Raph looked up a bit at Leo with a warm smile, then back at Mikey. “See what I mean?”

“NO! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! CURSE YOU MYSTIC POWERS! I WILL FIGURE YOU OUT AND WHEN I DO, YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU DARE-” 

“- Donnie, buddy, we’re having a moment.” Donnie shot his eyes up at Leo’s words and looked towards the other three, staring but mostly used to the “out of context scientific outbursts”. “Awkward cough, right, of course. WELL, the spreadsheet was a total bust so I spent all night working on nothing, and I really need another coffee--even though MIKEY won’t let me have anymore--so how about we move right on to phase 2!” He dramatically held up 2 fingers.

“You need to have something other than caffeine! Also what’s phase 2?”

“Why I'm so glad you asked, dear Angelo!” Donnie pointedly ignored the first part. “Raph, if you would please do the honors and make a full body projection as large as you are able--without damaging the lair or breaking anything please.”

“What? Why can't I, you know, just make one a tiny bit bigger than me?” Raph let go of Mikey and was looking nervous all over again.

“Because, Raphael, it'll be easier and faster in the long run if we start off with an extreme in the opposite direction opposed to starting with the least extreme version so that any sort of differences and general changes to how you and your body interact and interpret the world are easier to notice and document.” There was a moment and then, “Larger body equals more detail and less work later on.” Nods and general agreement. 

“Okay, okay, just… stand back, like a lot, cause I don’t wanna hurt you guys, even by accident… just in case.” As the group of three made their way to a nearby hallway, Raph just sighed and rolled his eyes as Leo gave him the biggest smirk he's seen on the slider’s face. Raph is guaranteed to never hear the end of how “he was right two days in a row! This needs to be a national holiday!”.

Raph moved over to the center of the room and pulled out his tonfas like he normally would. It was unusually silent outside of the frantic typing on Donnie’s gauntlet. Raph was usually so eager to show off how much better he’s gotten with his powers, but this time it felt different. Maybe because it was less of a training session or maybe unsure of the outcome of this experiment. Either way, he took a breath and let the energy spark and flow around him.

The projection grew at a slow but steady pace, tinting the area in a warm red. Donnie was typing notes like his life depended on it, Mikey was looking ahead, almost star-struck and Leo despite the smugness, was keeping an eye on Raph, who was nervous but didn’t look like he was gonna completely freak out.

Occasionally Raph adjusted positions when getting too close to a wall or ramp, finally stopping at around 30ish feet or so when the projection’s shoulders started to get a bit too close to both sides of the room. His brothers noticed the change and took that as an invitation to step back in the room.

Mikey came barreling towards Raph, stopping a few feet away. “Wooahhh! THIS IS SO COOL! Hey, Leo, was he this big when he caught you?” The box turtle was bouncing on his feet, more excited to be seeing the mystic form than hearing an actual answer.

Leo casually strolled up. “He was actually a biiiit bigger, but y’know, this is cool too” Mikey lightly jabbed Leo on his side, who just laughed and moved his eyes from Mikey to Raph “What about you Big and Red? How’s the weather up there? Man, I’ve been holding that one in since last night.” Raph just gave a nervous thumbs up, keeping his arms close to his chest.

Almost hyper aware of how small his brothers were, more than usual, Raph shifted slightly trying to find a good spot to sit down.

“Waiteaitwait! Don't sit yet! I still have to take measurements!” Raph immediately stopped, letting Donnie fly from head to toe, gingerly moving his arms for a measurement of his arm span. 

“Incredible it's perfectly proportioned and scaled to your exact measurements! Down to the tiniest of millimeters! But since I know only I will appreciate the exact measurements, your current height is 33 feet and 5 inches.” 

“Oh! That’s uh-”

“AND YOU CAN SPEAK THROUGH THE PROJECTION?!” Donnie flew up to Mystic Raph’s face and began poking around. “Hm, it's transparent but not with itself.” Donnie touched Mystic Raph’s face and was mostly staring through the projection rather than at it. Raph just let him poke and prod, rambling away, slowly getting used to the sensations. The numb, barely noticeable feelings slowly becoming clearer and with more weight.

“I can see through the face to the rooms and hallways but I can’t see the mask tails. If he were completely transparent (with the red and white outlines) I would be able to see everything…let’s see… hmm… guess there’s only one way to check if it's more mystic nonsense making you speak or some actual biology for once… Raph, open your mouth.” Aaaand any getting used to the new body was immediately brought to a screeching halt.

“WHAT?! I'm not gonna-” but Donnie already propped his tech bo in the projection’s mouth, keeping it jammed open. It felt insanely weird to have the mystic body restrained in some way while Raph’s physical body was just stuck with his mouth open. It felt even weirder when Donnie stuck half of his body inside and started to poke and prod around again, metal arms from his battle shell keeping the scientist in place.

Raph was deathly still, not even moving to grab his very smart but VERY dumb brother. He didn't know whether to feel glad his brother trusted him enough to get away with doing such a stupid action or terrified over the (extremely low) possibility of accidentally biting down. All he could do was give a pleading look down at Mikey and Leo for help. 

The slider took initiative after a bit, laughing as he made his way up to the floor near Raph's face. “Wow D, and here I thought you were the biggest germaphobe in the family~” 

Donnie didn't get out and instead just pointed a metal finger at Leo. “Jokes on you, I've already accounted for that!” The soft shell turned slightly, a mad scientist-like grin across his face. “While observing Mystic Raph’s face I noted that there was no moisture forming on eyes. None of the sheen and shine that comes with tear duct production. Eyes without said tear duct production need constant use of eye drops to remain functional and undamaged, so if the eyes can look and function like normal eyes while producing no moisture then it stands to reason that there is no saliva, blood or any other sticky gross disgustingness, and I was right!” 

Looking quite proud of himself, Donnie moved to stick his head back in when Mikey swung up and landed on Raph’s head, looking down at Donnie a bit sheepishly. 

“Uh, Donnie, maybe you should get out of there? Real Raph hasn't been able to close his mouth and it's probably not the most comfortable feeling.” That seemed to snap Donnie out of his smugness, looking down at Raph and then back at the tech bo.

“Ah, sorry. Let me just…” Donnie carefully pulled out the bo staff, and even though Raph flinched from the sudden shift, Donnie didn't, instead just retracting the spider arms, having the battle shell pull himself out and flying down to Mystic Raph’s middle “It didn't occur to me that you could feel or even have your physical body restrained whenever the mystic body was.”

“It's fine, just don't do it again, or since I know that you're probably gonna do it again anyway, just let me know BEFORE, please?” Raph adjusted his jaw for a moment before looking back down at Donnie who just nodded vigorously, “Guess that's what we're figuring out with this anyway, just how this” he gestured to himself, careful not to jostle Mikey too much, “whole situation works… did you find anything out doing that incredibly stupid thing at least?” 

“Ah yes! It seems that this form does have the same biology as yourself, a working setting of vocal cords being one of them. But a couple things before I go on. One, I grant you permission to sit down now if you wish, and Two,” Donnie’s eyes flickered to both the Mystic Raph’s face and then Real Raph’s “would it be easier if we talked closer to the projection’s head or your own”

“Oh, I mean, I guess I can see out of my real body if I try hard enough but it's easier to see out of the other body’s eyes.” Raph explained while carefully moving to a sitting down position, leaning comfortably on the skate ramp. 

Mikey kept his same spot on Mystic Raph’s head but went to lay down and Leo jumped from the spot near Raph’s head and sat on his shoulder, casually leaning against his neck. He whispered in Raph's ear so the box turtle couldn't hear “Told you that you were freaking out over nothing, you couldn't hurt us even if you wanted to. We honestly cause you more problems like this than you ever could.” Raph didn't give a verbal reply but Leo felt the shoulders stiffen and head gently lean on the slider just the tiniest amount. “Welp! Now that we’re all comfy n’stuff, we give you full permission to rant about the nerd stuff you found out, Don Tron.”

That got Donnie to perk right up and he spent the next half hour gushing about all the details ranging from how “the body less of a suit of armor shaped like Raph and more like an exact mirror image”, to how “since Mystic Raph can feel touch and experience other sensory input then his mystic power must be connected to his nervous system”. In short, this wasn’t a mystic power up of Raph, this was an extension of him, like an arm or a leg. Mystic Raph IS Raph and that thought made something warm and happy bubble in his chest. 

Past that, the other three weren’t thinking too hard about the specifics, but they were comfortable, and despite the early hours, after yesterday, still needed the rest, so they mostly just let Donnie info-dump the whole time (with a few light-hearted jabs thrown in here and there) about any minor or interesting fact the soft shell found out about Raph.

After a bit, Donnie’s pace began to slow and Raph immediately caught on, surprising himself when he offered his hands for the soft shell to land and relax on. Donnie insisted that he was still wide awake but took the offer anyway and promptly passed out a few minutes later. Raph gently moved Donnie towards Leo who removed the battle shell and placed it on the upper floor nearby. The three remaining brothers tried to fight off the lingering exhaustion of last night, “Guess Donnie and me weren't the only one to miss sleep…” but without any craziness to “ooo” and “aaa” at, sleep managed to claim the rest of Raph’s brothers one by one.

The four of them were all contently laying together now, Donnie carefully held close to his plastron, his hands providing the same amount of comfortable pressure as a weighted blanket. Leo squirmed and shifted around a lot but eventually settled for between the back of Raph’s neck and his shell, a spot that Leo’s back will definitely regret later. And Mikey migrated to the crook of Raph’s chin, finding security in the giant snapping turtle resting his head over Mikey as well as the gentle breathing beneath.

Raph on the other hand was more focused on the new, and admittedly amazing sensations that came with this new mystic form. Touch felt different but not in a foreign way anymore. It wasn’t a scary, numb tingle that was with touch but was more like a warm buzz. Almost as if the feeling his body was registering as touch was energy as opposed to wood or metal or brothers. Realizing this made Raph relax even more, a content and gentle rumble emanating from the giant body. He was about to fall asleep when his eyes snapped open. What was he doing, he can’t sleep like this, not with his brothers all over him, what if he rolls over in his sleep, what if he puts too much pressure on Donnie, or leans his head back too much and hurts Leo, or Mikey’s limbs get caught in his plastron, or-

A tiny, gentle hand gave a few pats to Raph’s neck. “It’s okay Raph, you’re not gonna hurt us, you can sleep if you want… unless you got something against afternoon naps…” Mikey turned over a bit and looked up at a slightly panicked Raph, who was trying his best to look back, “How can you say you're scared of your own strength when you’re more gentle now than you’ve ever been…” Recollection of a similar conversation popped into Raph’s head.

“Leo told you, huh?” The tiniest of whispers, barely audible unless you were right in front of Raph’s face, which Mikey thankfully was. The tiny turtle gave a huffed laugh.

“No one can keep secrets from my puppy eyes~” A few more pats to the neck, “but are you really okay with this? I don’t want to think that we forced you into testing this out…” Raph’s eyes widened.

“No, it’s fine, really, those two were right anyway, I needed to get used to it now before I might need to use it later. Just don’t tell them I said that, their egos have already skyrocketed the past couple days…” Raph saw Mikey give a fond smile, his eyes closing again, humming softly as he turned to get comfy again.

“Hmm, think about how cool it’ll be to use this during fights or brother ball or-”

“Heh yeah, okay okay, still gotta get used to this whole thing for now… go get some sleep, you all need it…” Mikey just snuggled up against Raph’s neck. His little brother wanted to fight sleep but was losing that battle.

“You… first…” Raph’s eyes softened as the box turtle fell back asleep. After a few moments of peaceful quiet, he curled up slightly against all his brothers and finally joined the rest, rumbling softly and contently the entire time.