#loose change rottmnt

[leglessstreetlights]

1/2/...

[turtsmcgurts]

Yep! She is a shapeshifter- somedays she is a shy lil squid girl, and ya know...some days she angy.

[antisocial-headphonesboi]

After literal years I’ve crawled out of the dumpster with not one, but TWO new hyperfixations djdhd

Don’t take this as me uploading consistently tho, it’ll still be super sporadic LMAO, but I have some art over the past couple months I’ve scheduled to post over the next few days or so so look forward to that :D!

[twignotstick]

Broken Brothers (and How to Fix Them)

Part 1 🧡

Note: This story is based on @cupcakeslushie 's Empyrean Weeping au. These characters are not my own, and this story is in no way canon to the main story. I wrote this as my love letter to the story and the characters. Especially April :)

(And because the au comp has made me go rabid, but that's another problem 🤡)

Tags: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, ROTTMNT, Mikey & April, Raph & April, NOT MY CHARACTERS, Empyrean Weeping AU, recovery, cooking, mental issues, talking it out because we're adults, sickness, sickfic (kinda)

Warnings (if there's anything I should add here, tell me please!): small physical injury, mention of past injury, description of scars

Words: 2,107

Summary: April was able to figure out her first brother easily. Now, she gets three more, with a couple more issues to worry about.

----------------------

In the few weeks since Mikey had come home, April had been having a blast. Don't get her wrong, she loved Raph. He was her brother. Her best friend, even. But sometimes he could be a little… overbearing? Sensitive? Thought she was dying when she got her period?

Mikey was fun. He swore like a sailor, which made Raph go crazy. He loved talking and listening, even when he wasn't really interested in April's rambling. And ever since Splinter had first shown him the kitchen, they all found out that he could cook.

According to him, he had cooked some before, when he was younger. But man, once he had access to the recipes of the internet, Mikey was an incredible chef. Every morning, he'd wake up to make breakfast for everyone. April had even made a habit of showing up to eat breakfast with the mutants.

It had all been going great! Mikey was adjusting perfectly!

And then he got sick.

April figured it was probably because of the sudden change of scenery. His body was still catching up, and coming to the surface for the first time in his life didn't help either. It was at the most a bad cold, but his nose was stuffed and his throat sounded like a clogged sink. He kept getting coughing fits and dizzy spells.

April had come down to visit. She wanted to check on Mikey, and on Raph. He had gone full protective Mama Bear mode as soon as Mikey even got the slightest hint of a sniffle. April knew that if he didn't get a moment to relax and not worry about his sick brother, he'd probably pull something and get sick himself.

When she arrived to a panicked Raph tossing around couch cushions, she knew her damage control would need to be in high gear.

“Raph?” April asked quietly, dropping her backpack off her shoulder and lowering it next to the couch. “Everything alright, big guy?”

“APRIL!” Raph dropped the pillows he had been holding and whipped around to face her. ���Have you seen Mikey?! I went into his room to get him up and he wasn't there. Did you see him on your way in?!”

“Uh, no?” April stepped up and placed a hand on Raph's shoulder. “Take a second and breathe, Raph. With me. In and out.”

April guided Raph's breathing until he finally looked like he had his head on straight again. “Good job,” she whispered. “Now, you said he wasn't in his room.”

“No,” Raph said quickly. “I checked there. I looked under his sheets, I know-”

“Okay, I believe you. Did you check the bathroom?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...Raph.”

“I WAS FREAKING OUT! I'VE BEEN SCREAMING HIS NAME, HE SHOULD'VE-”

“Okay, okay, it's okay!” April held her hands out placatingly. “I get it. He's your brother, it's okay to be worried about him. Maybe all the gunk in his nose got up in his ears and he couldn't hear you.” She breathed deeply. “Listen, you go check the bathroom and the dojo. Even if you already checked, check again. I'm gonna go to the kitchen and make myself something, because school lunch sucked today and I'm starving.” April grabbed Raph's shaking hand. “We'll find him.”

Raph took a deep breath and released it, holding April's hand loosely. “Right. We'll find him. He's gonna be okay. Raph's gonna be okay, because Mikey's gonna be okay!”

“Yes, yes, that's right Raph.” April's tone shifted on a dime. “Now go. Shoo. Skedaddle. I got food to eat.”

Raph shooed away timidly. April knew that he was just trying to make sure his baby brother was okay, but jeez. Not even checking the bathroom first? If you're going to lose track of someone, at least start looking for them in a reasonable place.

April made it to the kitchen and stopped suddenly at the doorway, almost shouting out for Raph immediately.

Come on, Raph. There isn't even a door here. Mikey was in clear view of anyone passing by the kitchen.

She saw the scarred, scratched shell of Mikey standing at the counter. She hadn't ever seen the shell from this angle; looking at it straight on. She'd seen it from the side, but looking at it now, it looked 10 times as painful. The gouges were deep.

What kind of monster could have done that to a kid this young?

Why was that kid out of bed right now he's sick why is he-

Mikey turned away from the counter with a plate in his hand. His blurry eyes caught sight of April at the door. He sniffled quietly then rasped, “Hey April. You're here early… You hungry? I'm gonna make some-” he was interrupted by a cough- “s-some… something. I’unno yet.”

“Mikey?” April walked into the kitchen to investigate what he'd been doing. There was a small mixing bowl to the side of the sink and a cup of water. Not even a measuring cup, but one of the old plastic cups they kept in the lower cabinets with a worn cartoon graphic on the side, barely even there after years of washing. “Buddy, you don't need to do that. You're sick. What do you mean ‘early’? It's, like, 4:30.”

Mikey blinked slowly. “Y…yeah. 4:30.”

“P.M., Mike.”

“...oh.”

“Do you usually get up that early? That's not healthy, Mikey.” April started walking around the kitchen island and grabbed one of the stools to pull it out. “You should sit down.”

“Wh- wha? I don't… I don' need to sit down. I gotta make breakfast.” Mikey still clutched the plate in his hands, a shaky smile on his face.

“Mikey, it's almost 5 in the afternoon. You don't need to make breakfast. Sit down, I'm gonna make some food for myself anyway.”

Mikey looked like he was getting more confused by the second. His eyes were watering, but April couldn't tell if that was due to the sickness or him genuinely being upset. “B-but I need to make breakfast.” He turned back to his hodge-podge cooking setup, plate still in his right hand. “W-wait, I can figure out something to make.” He sniffled loudly, catching in his throat and causing him to cough. “I got it, y-you just go see R-Raph!”

“No, Mikey. You need to sit down. Please, I-”

April was cut off by the sound of Mikey sneezing loudly. The force of the sneeze caused Mikey's arm to flail, shattering the plate in his hand on the edge of the sink. His dazed eyes stared at the pieces as they scattered both in the sink and across the tile. April held her hand over her mouth.

Mikey started mumbling curses and apologies under his breath as he kneeled to the floor, picking up the porcelain shards with his bare hands.

“MIKEY!” April rushed over the wreckage, grabbing Mikey by the shoulders and lifting him up. His hands were slightly cut up already by the sharp edges he had grabbed, and his knees had hit some too. “What are you doing?! You are going to sit down now.”

“B-but- But I-”

“Mikey.”

“B-but I broke the-”

“Sit.”

Mikey's tears were almost spilling over, but with April's help, he was able to sit at the kitchen island. His hands and knees were bleeding slightly, but nothing bad. Nothing near as bad as he'd seen, April guessed.

“I'm going to grab the first aid kit. Raph should be here any minute, if he isn't already eavesdropping. While I'm cooking, you can talk to me. Tell me how to make the ramen good like you make it. I'll make it spicy to open up your nose, just how you like. That's what I need you to do today, okay Mikey?”

Mikey looked like he wanted to fidget with his hands, but he knew that wouldn't be good. Wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand, he whispered, “Okay, April.”

April walked to the door, only to find Raph hurriedly coming from the bathroom with the first aid kit already in hand. “Really, Raph?”

“I heard the plate break, what was I supposed to do?” Raph whined with a guilty look on his face.

“Not act like your brother broke, maybe.”

Raph sighed and kept moving past April, sitting down next to Mikey without saying a word. He held out a hand which Mikey met, letting Raph analyze the damage. “We've all broken plates before, it's alright Mike.”

Mikey just hummed, shaking up the phlegm in his throat and getting him coughing again. Raph's eyes widened wildly, but April stared him down the moment he tried moving toward Mikey. Despite the snapper's intimidating stature, he shrank under April's glare.

April smirked and grabbed a ramen pack from the pantry. “So, Angelo,” she said, grabbing a pot from the overhead rack and turning to the turtles, “where do we start?”

Taking a second to compose himself, Mikey started instructing. “If you're making it for both of us, use two packs. A-and don't use that stupid sauce pack stuff they include with it, use actual sauce. I put it up in the…”

----------------------

When it was done, it was by far the best ramen April had ever made. Not the best she had ever eaten, (that prize belonged to Mikey), but it was still really good. Mikey seemed to like it too, and his gloomy demeanor was finally lessening.

Raph left the room shortly after the two started eating. Partly because he wanted to check on his dad, partly because he wanted to rest after over exerting himself in his search for Mikey, and partly because of the look April was giving him. She wanted to have a chat with Mikey, and that was apparent. 

Now, the two sat silently, eating their noodles. April sat just around the corner of the island. She didn't want to sit opposite him, but didn't feel like sitting right next to him. This just felt right.

“You know we want you here, right?” April asked softly.

“What?” Mikey's throat had cleared up just a bit, as well as his sinuses, allowing him to speak more clearly.

“We want you here. You know that, right?”

“W… w-well, yeah! I mean, Raph and Dad literally agreed to fight in the Battle Nexus to get me out! A-and you keep showing me such cool stuff, and bringing me nice things, and-”

“And we're always going to want you here,” April pressed firmly. “You don't need to worry about making us want you here.

“...what?”

“You don't need to worry about making us food, or cleaning up a mess you can't clean up on your own. Especially when you're sick. We should be taking care of you right now.”

Mikey fiddled with his chopsticks, looking back and forth from April to his noodles.

“And it doesn't matter what you do. We'll always want you here. You're family. Doesn't matter if you can't make breakfast, or if you break a plate-”

“Or if I eat the last slice of pizza?” Mikey asked timidly, simultaneously admitting to a most heinous crime.

“Even if you eat the last slice of pizza.” April smirked and pointed at Mikey. “But that's thin ice, bud.”

Mikey laughed for the first time April had heard all day. Sure, it was only a little giggle, and it kicked up another small coughing fit, but it didn't matter. The fun brother she had begun caring so deeply about was finally sitting in front of her again.

“Bad habits are tough to crack,” April sighed. “I'm gonna help you realize that, and it might take a while. Just please, don't forget we love you.”

Mikey nodded.

“You know,” April said, leaning back on her stool and swinging her legs up to sit criss-cross, “I really do love you like a brother already. And I really, really want you to stay. Sooo, imagine how Raph and Splints must feel. Outta this world love, right?”

Mikey's smile softened. “Guess you're right.”

“Course I am!” April stood up with her empty ramen bowl. “I'm gonna put this in the sink for me to wash later, and you're gonna put yours there too when you're done. How's watching some mindless cartoons sound for the rest of the afternoon? I bet I can get Splints to give up the TV.”

Mikey held his chopsticks close and gave the sweetest, most doe-eyed expression. “Do you think I could get one of Raph's plushies, too?”

April huffed a laugh. “Boy, if you asked him with that face, I think he'd give you his whole collection.”

Mikey's face morphed into a mischievous grin. “I'll take that challenge.”

○●○●○●○

The spirits of the tmnt au comp possessed me. I've already written a second part for this. You'll never guess who it's about 🔵🐢

Again, this is my love letter to EW! I am in no way involved with EW, I just wanted to write about how April could get along with her new brothers. Can't wait for the first round of voting in the comp!

Part 2 -> 💙

[pikoit]

they are shedding & you try to help | rottmnt x reader

Raph is embarrassed by it. “Raph does not need any help,” he assures you as he tries to gently move your hands away from his spiky shell. Unfortunately, he can’t reach every well when you keep going behind his back and he doesn’t want to move too quickly so he doesn’t jab you.

He’s probably the easiest to deal with when he’s shedding compared to all his brothers. He can’t really feel his back and he’s only a little itchy on his arms and the tops of his thighs, so his mood doesn’t change. He also actually doesn’t need any help, like he said. He sheds just fine. However, he does appreciate it when you scratch his arms or take a towel to help get the stubborn parts that wouldn’t flake off.

He had been the one to have the most shedding experience out of all of his brothers, not only just because he was the oldest, but because of all the growth spurts he had gone through. He’s pretty much a pro.

—

Donnie is the most pissed off you’ll ever see him. He looks like he got struck dead five times and resurrected back each time and then stayed up for two weeks afterwards without a single hour of sleep.

Luckily, he’s the quickest of all his brothers to shed. Unluckily, sometimes his skin gets caught on his battle shell when he wears it, so he’s banned from wearing it when he sends. He is put off by this, obviously.

He pretty much just lounges around on his bed because he’s too irritated to focus in his lab. If you want to help, he’ll just tell you to put lotion on his skin while he tries to pretend he is not real and that his skin is not peeling off and it isn’t falling onto his bed or getting everywhere or being disgusting—

—

You almost died when you saw a piece of Leo’s shell hanging off his back. You thought you had broken his shell somehow when you smacked his back for making a rude comment towards you. You were relieved when Donnie informed you he was only shedding. But Leo was devastated.

“This is awful!” Leo whined as he lounged in the water filled bath, staring up at the ceiling miserably. “I hate shedding.”

“I didn’t even know turtles could shed,” you said as you took a rag down his plastron, grimacing as flakes and pieces fell into the water.

Leo blew out a breath, rolling his eyes at your reaction. You turn him around and take a rag down his one loose scute, grimacing as it started to fall off even more. “Blegh.”

In short, he’s a little crybaby and must be cuddle afterwards. You must pamper him since he’s gone through SO much pain and trouble for simply existing.

—

Mikey’s shed is the worst and always gets stuck. He has patches all over him ready to fall off but it just won’t. It hurts to pull on it too, but he can’t help it and does so anyways. Every time he reaches to do it, Raph smacks him on the head, Donnie sprays him with water, and Leo blows an air horn.

It’s a very eventful time for everyone in the lair.

Just like Leo, he has to soak. But that’s pretty boring, so luckily, you’re here to spend time with him as he wastes away in the water.

You have to stop him multiple times from trying to eat his scutes. The nutritional benefit does not outweigh the ethical dilemma weighing on your mind of someone you love dearly eating a part of themself that just fell off. You don’t care that he’s half animal, he will obey to his half human part when it comes to eating.

[goosewriting]

Scenario 1 with Leo please 🥺?

In your arms (rottmnt Leo x reader)

scenario 1: Fall asleep in the same bed, on opposite sides, wake up in each other's arms.

summary: falling asleep on opposite sides of the bed and waking up in each other’s arms.

relationship: Rise!Leo x GN reader

warnings: pure fluff!

word count: ~730

A/N: this one was so cute 🥺 excellent choice anon. i eat this trope up like good soup 😩<3

(english is not my first language. constructive criticism and grammar corrections are very appreciated!)

– – – 

Just like every Friday, it was gaming night at the turtles’. You were, as always, having a blast, so you totally lost track of time. When you finally decided to check the clock, it was too late to go walking around the city alone, so they insisted you stay over. You agreed, as you had stayed over multiple times in the past. They’d always bring some extra pillows and blankets to the projector room where you all essentially ended up sleeping in a pile. 

But since Leo and you had started dating recently, when it was time to go to bed this time, he simply took your hand in his and guided you to his room, a light blush on his cheeks as he could hear his brothers’ snickers. He tried to seem nonchalant about it, as if it was the most obvious turn of events given your status. Internally he was freaking out though. And so were you, to be honest.

Since the sleepover wasn’t planned, you hadn’t brought any sleepwear with you, so Leo gave you a change of clothes. When he saw you wearing his shirt, which was way too big on you and basically engulfed your body, he almost combusted on the spot. But he kept his cool as he unabashedly eyed you up and down, sporting his signature smirk. You squirmed a little under his intense gaze, not sure what to do with your hands. 

“Yeah, I could get used to that” he finally said and took a step closer to you. “You almost wear it better than me.” 

You smacked him playfully on the chest with heated cheeks as he laughed at your reaction. Then he motioned towards the bed, letting you crawl in first. Even though his bed was big enough for the both of you, you scooted all the way to the wall.

Once you were both settled in comfortably, Leo gave you a shy look; he really wanted to cuddle. Usually he wouldn’t have a problem showering you in physical affection, but this time it felt different, and he didn’t want to smother you. He was about to make a light-hearted joke about how far back you had moved, when you simply gave him a good night kiss on the cheek and turned around with your back to him. Leo gave a pout which you couldn't see. For a moment he considered hugging you from behind, but he decided against it. With you essentially pressing yourself to the wall, he took it as a sign to keep his distance, and he respected that.

Meanwhile you were trying to control your racing heart. You smacked yourself mentally for being so cold to him, hoping he wouldn’t be offended. You two would always be touching in some way throughout the day, with his arm over your shoulder or your legs up on his lap. But falling asleep together, just the two of you, it felt rather intimate, and you didn’t know what to do with yourself right now. 

Making a mental note to apologise the next day and give him extra kisses, your heart and mind started calming down. Lulled by Leo’s steady breaths and his comforting presence, you eventually fell asleep.

As you were waking up the next day, the first thing you noticed is that you couldn’t really move. And yet you felt extremely comfy and warm. You blinked a couple of times, trying to focus your eyesight, and that’s when you were met with a plastron. 

Your breath hitched as you realised you were cuddled into Leo’s chest. His arms hung loosely but protectively around your torso, pulling you close, and your legs were tangled with each other. 

Not daring to move yet, you listened to his breathing, which was even and actually held a cute little snore to it; he was still asleep. You didn’t want to move too much so as not to wake him, so you gave a gentle kiss to whatever part of his you could reach, which in this case was his jawline. To your surprise, you heard him chuckle, and it resonated through your body as well since you were so close to him. 

“Good morning” he said in a groggy voice, his arms hugging you a little tighter. “I take it you slept well?”

You merely hummed in response, hiding your face into his neck in embarrassment. 

[evanhamato]

Good morning? Good after or goodnight! Hope you’re having a wonderful day! I have 2 scenarios that came to mind, so I’ll let you pick whatever you want, whatever makes you imagination, imagine.

Scenario 1- the turtles have an s/o that’s like really good at something they love, like amazing at this, but s/o dose not like doing this and sees it more like some sort of chore. Due to the fact the parents made them do if from really young age, makinh them quite any other things and or hang outs, parties or anything else as they where expected to put 110% into this, they are good at it not because they want to, but because they had no choice but to be good at it.

for the things the s/o is really good at:

for Donnie it could be something to do with robotics, or coding

for mikey someyhung to do with cooking or ballet.

For Raph something with boxing, wrestling or some sort of martial arts

And for Leo maybe something with modelling, or icon.

Scenario 2-there a/o is a yokai, maybe like a rabbit or a weasel so when winter comes they just start turning white, how would they react? Would they freak out? Would they find it cool? Or even annoying at the fact fue is everywhere?

[ Thermochromic ]

ROTTMNT x GN!Reader who is a rabbit yokai

A/N: noe. what cameras do you have on me. bunnies are my special interest. REVEAL YOURSELF /J. I WAS BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS TO DO THIS ASK THANK YOU NOE. also the hazbin hotel ost is so good?? anyways back to the topic, THANK YOU NOE FOR REQUESTING!! <3

Relationships: Romantic, platonic, whatever you perceive it as, mostly romantic though

TW: Fluff, turts getting freaked out, fainting mentions, cuddling

Raph

Squealed when he saw you.

He almost fainted, he thought someone had broken in until he saw your face.

When you explained that you were molting due to winter, you could see his shoulders drop in relief.

Gives you lots of scratches during your naps to get the extra fur off, he doesn't wanna make you itchy while awake.

If he hears you purring/clucking in your sleep, he knows he's not doing anything wrong.

Still, a little freaked out. But hey, you changes colors, that's cool in his eyes!

Leo

Genuinely fell over when he first witnessed you molting.

You had to repeat yourself a few times while explaining, you weren't sure if he was listening or not due to how surprised he was.

Whenever he leans in for a smooch, immediately starts to cough, he ALWAYS forgets molting includes free fur everywhere.

Please god why is there so much FUR.

Once tried to use his swords to cut off the extra fur.

It didn't end well. Thank god it was in a spot that wasn't noticeable.

Donnie

Already knew beforehand but seeing it in action is fascinating.

Star eyes in live action.

How many times are your lab privileges going to get revoked, reader?

Aside from the lab, you are to go for a shower before you cuddle or touch him at all.

Fur is nice sensory wise but, fur that isn't attached to you is prickly and icky.

After you molt, expect him to cling to you like a magnet. New fur equals heaven.

Mikey

If he isn't hanging out with you, he's hanging out with Donnie. So, of course he knew!

Still a little freaked out.

He actually adores the loose fur everywhere, it smells like you!

Plus, its like a little souvenir.

Extra plus, it's free art materials!

He sees you the same, regardless of changing color. <3

[itsyagurlchip]

Rottmnt request platonic funny hc.

Younger sister reader whose always talks about " am daddy's favorite and i'll have most of his inheritance " type of talk like how leo jokes mostly about new Jersey and whenever her brothers are either in danger or doing something naughty she always writes to her dad with

" dear daddy, sadly i'd like to inform you that my brothers are mostly dead so please scratch their names off your will and thank you "

٠ ˚ ※ ๋࣭  ᯓ⚝ ⋆ .˚✰"Daddy! Buy Me North Korea!"٠ ˚ ※ ๋࣭  ᯓ⚝ ⋆ .˚✰

✰⋆⁺warnings: death mentions(!) death threat jokes(!) reader is scary(!) lil bit of angst(!) cussing(!)

✰⋆⁺I really love this one- I'm even gonna add gifs for specific events rather than making up my own plot. My brain is kinda hurting- I found this funny bc it's a thing that me and my dad joke about from time to time.

"that's a thousand dollars" "out of what?" "what I'm owing you in my will"

I hope you all enjoy<33

✰⋆⁺ Random scenes where reader "accidentally" mentions her ability to kill the four turtles. Poor thing doesn't even know that Splinter hasn't even written his will yet.

Reader already knew that Lou Jitsu was a popstar in the hidden city-

Just look at all of those posters!

And after a bit of poking and prodding at Draxum for a while, she found out how they were created.

Yet she didn't know who her biological father was, and her digging came to an end.

untilll-

After finding out that Splinter is Lou Jitsu (during the fish and ladders fight), reader has been ADAMANT that Splinter still has some of that leftover money.

You know how the turtle boys always try to gain Splinter's favor?

Well, reader tries even harder.

Homemade gifts, physical affection, spends time with the old rat, listens to his stories.

She is getting that money one way or another.

She even tries to stay in the lair more often, sometimes to manipulate his opinions of her brothers just a tiny bit.

But that doesn't mean she isn't genuine with her actions-

She just wants the benefits yk?

I basically headcannon her to be like Zuri from 'Hey Jessie" and "Bunk'd' where when she finds an opportunity for money, she'll take it.

Reader is very observational, so after finding out Donnie's password, she just slowly started cashing out the man's bank.

She found it even better when she realized that ALL of his passwords were the same and he BARELY changes them.

When someone owes reader her money, she'll get it.

She's actually kind of a loan shark, and even does interest depending on who owes her and how long they didn't pay her,

"HEY! I said pay up bucko! It's been three months and you still haven't coughed up JACK."

Repo never wanted to be in debt to a little girl ever again.

Anyone who is in debt to her will be crouching in pain- wallet empty, dignity lost, banging the floor, and broke as hell.

"IS THAT MONEY I HEARD?" You shouted, this may have been the best day of your life! Say goodbye to pyramid schemes ole pal! You just found a new source of forever income!

You sighed dreamily, thinking about how much cash you'll be flowing in before the old rat croaks.

Raph deadpanned at you before grabbing you by the shell and dragging you away from the fight.

"Ooh Donnie! DOn't GeT ClAweD At!!! You might just loose your name in the will! Who do you think Splinter will give it to??? His favorite child of course!"

You cackled evilly at the thought, but pouted when you saw that your brother survived.

"NO!" Raph yelled, jumping off the roof to catch Leo.

"There's no point! You should've just ran- Besides, he barely has anything left to his name but a few lil comics and unicorn figures." You rolled your eyes.

Raph successfully caught Leo, with said turtle yelling in retaliation to your claim.

"THEY AREN'T JUST UNICORN FIGURES!!"

While Leo was fighting Raph, you were writing a letter, tears staining the page. Somehow, you had gotten aloose with all of the commotion.

But instead of running, you wrote,

" dear daddy, sadly i'd like to inform you that my brothers are mostly dead so please scratch their names off your will and thank you "

The joy that you would have mountains of cash was overshadowed by the depression that you felt over the possibility of losing your brothers.

If they did actually die, you would pay them 500 bucks each everytime you passed their graves. If not, then writing this letter was completely and utterly useless.

More tears fell from your eyes, angry at the selfishness you had despite how dire the situation currently is. You stopped writing.

The Krang had attacked the day before, but you had to find it before it was too late!

Splinter was dead. He had been for a while now, died from old age and dementia. Out of respect, you held back your impatience to find that damned paper-

There!

While very unprofessional, and quite frankly very unorganized, the will was there.

"My Dear youngest, Pink .

I know you will find this first. You always had a thing for wads of cash and anything that blinged."

Tears began to flow from your eyes again, your lip trembling as you continued to read,

"Do know, I have nothing to my name. No money, no residence, nor any left over children."

The paper crinkled beneath your hands, you knew it. You fucking knew it and yet you continue to read it. How utterly selfish of you. Law wouldn't matter, not with what is going on right now.

Things were hopeless. The future would be corrupted by these alien things. And yet, you still read.

"The only thing I would want to leave for you and your brothers, the only thing I can give you in my current state are my final words.

I love all of you. I am proud of each and every one of you. Watching you all grow up was one of the best things that Lou Jitsu never would have known he needed.

Take care, don't miss this old rat too much.

-Splinter Hamato"

That night, you cried the most you've ever done in your entire life. And in a few hours, you were dead.

Mikey, the one who found your hand clenched to your weapon underneath pounds of rubble, couldn't speak for the next few days. The letter stayed in his pocket.

man... I'm bummed now.

For those who are worried; no, reader did not kill herself. The Krang just caught her, she was the first to go.

(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و tags: @kittykittyanon @radicallxser @oleander-nin @towomatos @thealphagirl

@ziipzeepzop-eez @spongejuice @nuncscioquidsitamor-13 @cyb3r-st4r

if you would like to be added, check my blog. if you would like to be added, check my blog. SEE? I SAID IT TWICE!!

[cryptidblossomd]

I have so many TMNT ideas and aus idk? And like A LOT of them never for fleshed out fully so I am here to share some and maybe someone will like them enough to take over/ get inspo :)

Ok so first off we have the haunted au, it's a au loosely based off Rottmnt. But with a major 2012 aspect. Keep reading to get the info

Ok so, 2018 during the fight with the shredder they were killed in battle. Holding that guilt they somehow got Mikey's ninpo to transport them to the 2012 world. Where each 2012 turtle is haunted by the 2018 ones,

Leo is haunted by Red,

Donnie by Orange,

Raph by Purple

Mikey by Blue.

They started calling the 2018 turtles by their color as they don't know their names.

After the deaths of each 2018 boy, they kinda faded slightly, they are all fragments of themselves? Blue is zaps of electricity, Purple are layers of code, Orange is like a flame tbag flickers and Red is various shapes fading in and out. They are all transparent and have clear eyes but can communicate with each other and their respective hauntie.

Mikey was the first to notice Blue, every since he was young there was always this blue trail of blue that followed him. He of course tried to bring it up with the others but they thought it was just a thing of his imagination. This of course means Mikey was the easiest to bond with his respective soul gaining Blues power and energy. He can't teleport like blue but he gains extraordinary speed. Making it look like he was teleporting to the untrianed eye.

Raph was actually the next to see the soul, at first he thought the floating code was a prank Donnie was playing on him. But when he was out fighting and his sai's broke. Suddenly the code materialized into a new weapon that's when he started to acknowledge it more, Raph again doesn't necessarily gain the power to conjure weapons he thinks of but purple will actually assess the situation at hand and conjur up what weapon is best in the situation and transform into that for Raph.

Leo was after, after starting to see the Blue and Purple flickers surrounding his brothers he started to wonder if he had any such thing. He tried for a while but nothing ever made it's presence known, this of course upset him a little but he tried to not let it be known. However once while fighting he got pretty injured, this lead to red squares materializing and heal it for him. They faded not long after but he remembered that encounter for a while. Which lead to him meditating and trying to talk to the soul. It didn't really ever work until he had the idea to use his katana blade to cut himself, cutting the palm of his hand and soon red flickers surrounded it healing it. Not wanting the shapes to fade he muttered a small thank you. It seemed like the cubes stopped for a second before a warm touch was felt on Leo's forehead. Smiling Leo now gained the ability of self healing and healing others. Red can virtually heal anything as long as it wasn't a missing limb or deadthly fatal.

Donnie was the last to ever learn of the souls, not that he was skeptical especially after all his brothers learned of their. But because no matter what he did the power never triggered. Hurting himself? Nothing. Physical activity, Nope still the same. Weapon changes? Still a stupid stick. No matter what trouble he got into the magic? the soul? the nothing after a while he kind of gave up. Seeing his brothers so happy controlling these new found powers and stuff made him lock himself away. For a whole year nothing showed not even a spark, until he was particularly frustrated with a piece of machinery. He was getting super fed up with it. Nothing was going his way he started to cry actually, he trashed his room and started tearing up. It as then small flickers of fire surrounded his face and body. causing him to float, they picked him up and soon an orange ghost appeared in front of him with a bright grin. It apologized and picked his machine up, rebuilding it and handing it back to him. Setting Donnie down the ghost floated down to him and smiled again this time more softly. "I grant...my power restoration to you" soon the orange ghost disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Ever since then donnie had been able to section a 3ft by 3ft area to go back and forth in time. He also bragged about seeing his ghost first but his brothers never believed him.

Each ghost showed themselves through time. Orange was of course the first to show themselves and speak. Purple learned to speak to Raph not long after Donnies encounter with Orange, Blue learned to show himself to Mikey and speak in cut..sen..te.c...es. and it took Red about a month to even show himself to Leo.

Anyway! That's that!! Feel free to use this or add on!! I'll post more of these eventually maybe

[raainy-daze]

Hiii, ahm If you're still taking requests, I'll ask for a headcanon or Scenerio with Donnie and Leo, where they discover that their crush Fem S/O who is very tomboy-style, is a magical girl like sailor moon! Thanks! And in the name of the moon, drink water!

Disaster Twins w/ Magical Girl Crush

rottmnt leo x fem!magicalgirl!reader

rottmnt donnie x fem!magicalgirl!reader

summary: you didn’t mean to keep your magic from the guys. it just didn’t seem important until now. it’s not a big deal, really, you’re just an anime style magical girl.

word count: 391

a/n: i went into this thinking the magical girl thing would be the tough part. no. it was the tomboy part. sorry if that bit is a little brushed over, thanks for requesting!

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

Leo . . .

right off the bat he’s just kind of screaming about why didn’t you tell him

he’s your best friend he’s supposed to know these things

but don’t worry, he forgives you, now give him all the details

despite the initial “you traitor why didn’t you tell me”

(assuming your uniform/outfit would be a dress/skirt)

he’s honest to god more weirded out by the skirt than the magic

i mean magic is a dime in a dozen nowadays

but this is unusual. it’s just a very different aesthetic yknow

speaking of, if you have an aesthetic, he will try to match it whenever you’re out together

you know leo he’s going to make dumb jokes.

anime jokes no one laughs at

running gag of asking about magical powers he knows you don’t have

eg: “hey, did that cat just insult me?” “leo, for the last time, i cannot talk to animals-“

out of nowhere you’re just in the lair one time scrolling on your phone

“wow, (y/n). you sure you don’t have love magic?”

“what”

“what”

Donnie . . .

he has a whole crisis

you know the episode with the yokai witches and all that?? if this happens pre that episode he will loose it briefly

“WHY ARE YOU MAGIC. WHY IS EVERYONE MAGIC NOW.”

you were probably the last person on his list to be magical, especially sailor freakin’ moon style magical

did sailor moon ever fall out of a tree she climbed as a dare?? did sailor moon ever randomly show up with a black eye and refuse to elaborate??

maybe she did. he didn’t know, he’d only seen two episodes at mikey’s hand

he does, however, want to know the source

is it from some kind of relic? mystic weapon? or something entirely different from the other magic stuff he’s seen

if you have a wand he wants to experiment on it.

(don’t let him experiment on it.)

(don’t.)

(seriously bad plan.)

he also questions the physics of magical girl outfit changes

he questions a lot of things really. he’s donnie what can you expect

from now on any gifts he makes for you will be made with your powers in mind

it might get a bit ridiculous but hey. he’s trying. it’s his love language. accept it.

don’t worry, he won’t pull a donnie’s gifts repeat with you

[leglessstreetlights]

WHERES MY BOY PIP (Doodle request if you're still accepting them!)

:)

[monotone90]

We all know how there are no visble Utrom in rottmnt, right?

What if there were different Krang species based on the seven deadly sins. Some of the Krangs species have two sins instead of one. so this is what I got;

Pride and wrath: The Krang we already know.

Gluttony:

• A giant with only tentacles and a mouth that covers most of their visble body,

• Without eyes, just eats everything blindly.

• Uses their tentacles to grab things and stuff it in their mouth.

• They don't care what they eat or if it's eatable they will eat it.

• They use their tentacles to breathe while they eat.

• Would use the earth as a meal- the entire earth, rock, and everything in-between, then die from the inside out once they eat the molt at the Earth's core.

Greed and envy:

• On the contrary to their large cousins (Punny) they are tiny and con fit in the palm of your hand. Fresh for size;

(Did I just want to draw Fresh? Yes, yes I did.)

• They are jealous of the things that humans have, like human's hight, and things like games, pets, hight, bikes, clothes, hight, beds, tables... Did I mention human's hight?

• If we listed off everything that they are jealous of humans for we would be here all year.

• What they do to satisfy some of their jealousy is steal things... Including human's bodies.

• Like what had happened with Raphael they latch onto the human's head somewhere (Mostly the eyes) then embed their tentacles into the human's head, then deeper, and deeper.

• They often take over the human's entire life due to being able to see everything about what he human remembers but they don't have the same skills as the human, only the human's memories of doing the thing they're skilled in.

•If you kill the eye, you kill the Krang. If you kill the Krang, you kill the tendrils. If you kill the tendrils you kill the control over yourself.

Sloth:

*No one has seen sloth but their affects and what they do is known.*

• Sloth has tendrils so they use them to put people to sleep.

• They use their voice to sing people to sleep.

• They often just sleep on the planets they live in without harming it.

• They are often just wanting ever lasting slumber, no war, no violence, just sleep.

• They're the most peaceful Krang and some can be befriended if you show them the world isn't as bad as they were taught.

• Can be the insomniac's best friend that helps them sleep.

• But others just want life to slowly wither away in everlasting nightmares.

• They usually hide under sleeping caps.

Lust:

• They shape shift but their true form is unknown.

• They lure people into the darkest corners of the streets with what the person lusts for (that includes meaningful, loving, romantic relationships) by changing their forms or using their tentacles to trick the person and warp the person's mind but only temporarily.

• Once they lure the person away they turn the person away into their den they turn them into Krang zombies but they can look completely normal.

• The way to tell if someone is a Krang zombie is how they act, like; memory gaps, much more lustful behavior to everyone, and loosing the passion he/she/they had with the person's hobbies. If they're an introvert he/she/they will be outside way more than usual.

• They use their voices to arouse or lure the person away in a trance. The way to break out of the trance is to realize you're in it and to move and do things against the Krang's control. Once you break out of their control they will send their zombies to kill or infect you turning you into one of their zombies.

• You need acid or a very hot object to kill them.

[yourlocalartsonist]

ROTTMNT Moths Fly In Packs - Chapter Nine

HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT I'M ALIVE AND I AM SO SORRY! It's been way too long and I'm genuinely sorry this chapter took several fucking months to make but IT'S FINALLY DONE! It ended up way longer than I intended man, I THOUGHT THIS WAS GONNA BE SHORT. It's my longest chapter yet fun fact. I don't even regret it really, it benefited so much from the extra effort. Hopefully the next few chapters won't take this long but I will refrain from jinxing myself again so🧍‍♀️Anyway enough blabbering, hope y'all enjoy this one ;w;

CREDIT To the MFIP Team: Thank you to @yosajaeofficial, @urlocalmj, misfortun3_ismyname (on TikTok), @chaoticspeedrun, @ramblehour and @goldanrabbit for being my lovely editors! MAN did they give this chapter a lot of polish-

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Chapter One

Disclaimer: Chapter involves verbal abuse/manipulation, harassment, gaslighting, depressive thoughts, violence, blood, mentions of a wounded limb, brief mentions of nausea, displayed anxiety, and curse words. If you're sensitive to that, scroll past and stay safe!

I rushed around my room throwing shit on as fast as I could. Not fast enough apparently, since my phone’s vibrating like it’s gonna explode.

It’s late as hell right now, but Zane insisted on meeting up. Pretty randomly at, like, 11pm on a school night. I was initially planning to reject the idea or ghost with the excuse of sleeping, but it’s been a good while since I actually did hang out with him. I know insomnia’s gonna keep me up for a bit anyway, so why the hell not? We might even have fun! Just wish he’d stop flooding my notifs like I didn't already say I was actively getting ready.

I looked in the mirror, checking to see if I was presentable enough for the outside realm. My reflection’s the same as always; for better or worse. Still the same pink dress, same green skirt, same  boots. Can’t forget the gold earrings; the only emergency asset I held onto. I don’t know what I expected. I don’t have much to work with. Guess the gloves from Donnie are new, at least. But I’m still getting… bored? A change in appearance—even a small one—might be able to fill that hole for a while. Keep me distracted.

Maybe I could do something with my hair tonight? I still have Mi’s ribbon lying here somewhere.

I ignored Zane’s digital pestering and spent a few extra minutes shuffling through drawers and boxes, eventually finding her long, white ribbon—handmade from moth silk. She wore it all the time. I barely remember her hair being fully down unless she was sleeping or about to shower. Except for that one night, of course. The night she left and was never found again. She almost did take the ribbon with her. Had her hair done up in a bun and everything, even a little fancier than usual. But she took it off once she saw me behind her, barely reflected in the mirror. She crouched down, placed it in my tiny palms, and gave me her wonderfully warm smile. It’s the last thing she left me with. The last gift she could ever give me. 

After that, the ribbon’s survived years of storage and then more years of… unconventional bullshit use. I know moth silk ain’t the weakest thing on Earth but I’ve deadass used this ribbon as a make-shift pulley system to sneak stuff into my room through the window before, some of which weighed more than me! Its got the endurance of a Nokia at this point. 

I’ve barely used the ribbon for its intended purpose, though. I mean, how could I? I’m not my mom no matter how similar we look. Maybe this is a me-thing, but I always felt wearing the ribbon would be like replacing her with myself. 

Although, I’m sure Mi would’ve loved it if I wore it. 

Using the ribbon, I tied my hair into a ponytail and styled it as a loose bow, just to see how it would look. The white tails gently draped over my back down to my hips. I never quite realized how long the ribbon was before now. I don’t look as fancy or pretty as mom did, but it’s the best I’ve got. It… it doesn’t look bad, though, I think. It actually looks kinda nice! Maybe I’ll use it a bit more often. 

My phone’s repeated buzzing snapped me out from my trance. “Alright, alright, shut up already.” I groaned. Zane’s growing impatient.

You: hey sorry I jsut finished getting ready

You: heading out the door now! :3 

Fuck doors. Sneaking out became a whole lot easier ever since I did it from my window, but he doesn’t have to know that. I can already imagine him scolding me about the dangers of dropping down from high places, even with the fire escape there. He wouldn’t be wrong, per se, but at this point I’ve handled worse. Would probably send him into cardiac arrest if he knew what I’d actually been up to these few months.

I sprinted to the spot we agreed to meet up at. Zane was already there, leaning against the wall with his hands stuffed in his pockets like always. 

“Salena! Hey!” He lit up like a star when he saw me, beckoning me over.

God, for a sour person, he has such a sweet smile. He’s usually so good at being intimidating and frightening. Yet the second he brings out his smile, all that built-up fear washes away like it was never there to begin with. 

“I almost thought you wouldn’t come.”

“Well, I figured I could use some fresh air.” I tilted my head to the side, eyeing his fit. “You left your sweater at home?”

“Hm?” He followed my gaze to his pitch black tank top in place of the usual outfit. “Oh, right! Yeah, the weather’s too hot for a sweater tonight. Forgot I changed it, really.”

Now that I’m looking closer, his choker’s missing too. It probably didn’t match with the top. Seems like it got swapped with a black watch on his left wrist that complimented the look way more. Doesn’t matter what he pretends to be though, I know Zane pays very close attention to his appearance. He’s gotta maintain the rep of our grade’s “Pretty Boy” after all. When it comes to him, every little detail matters.

Wait a sec…

“What happened to your arm?”

I couldn’t see ‘till he turned towards me but his left arm had a deep bluish-purple bruise spread across it. It looked like it was from something long like a pipe or a bat. Either way, it was gnarly enough to worry me. 

“Oh that. It’s nothing too bad.” He shrugged.

“You kiddin’ me? It looks awful! What happened?” I carefully grabbed his arm and took a closer look at the mark. I wish Leo was here, but thankfully I’ve picked up a little medic knowledge from him so I can at least tell if a bone is broken or not.

“Hey, don’t get your feathers all fluffed! I got a little hurt rough-housing with the guys, that’s all. You know how they are.”

“Rough-housing? Or a secret murder attempt?” I was only being half sarcastic. It wouldn’t be out of character for them.

“Don’t worry! It’s really sweet of you to care, but they’d never dare hurt me on purpose! Now, on another note…“ He paused for a moment, taking a proper look at me. For a little bit, I couldn’t tell why he smirked. “Looks like someone wanted to look cute tonight, ey? You wore your hair up.”

“Huh?” I touched my hair, forgetting I changed it earlier. “Oh, um, yeah! I-I did! I thought I’d give it a try. Does it… um, you know, look too bad or weird or?…”

“No! No, it… it looks really pretty.” Oh god, that’s a relief to hear! I was so paranoid it wouldn’t suit— “I gotta ask, though.”

I caught him inching closer. I tried creating space, but quickly realized I was up against the wall again. Should’ve been more careful about that. His hand reached out, bringing back all sorts of cringe-inducing memories. He didn’t technically pin me like last time, but he tucked my bangs back behind my ear. Feeling his fingers come into contact with my skin almost feels just as nauseating, though. 

“How’d you know I had a thing for girls in ponytails?”

And fuck, he made it weird again.

“Z-Zane?”

“Yeah?…” WHY ISN’T HE GETTING THE HINT!? “You know, you always look so soft when you dress up. You just bloom.”

“…So! What are we doing tonight?” 

His smile slightly dropped, likely upset I ruined whatever moment he was trying to have. Honestly, didn’t matter to me, as shitty as that sounds. I just wanted to change the topic so he’d step back a bit. We go through this every time; this stupid ass, awkward aura. I wish it would stop happening. 

On the bright side, he did step back and redirect his focus to answering my question. On the not so bright side, his answer was a pathetic shrug.

“I don’t know.”

“Y-you… What do you mean you don’t know? I snuck out here in the middle of the night, you told me it’d be something special! You’ve gotta have something planned.”

“Honest, I don’t! I thought it was beautiful outside and it reminded me of you. Wanted to see where such a lovely night could take us. I think that’s special enough, don’t you?”

“W-Well, I mean—“

He chuckled “What’s wrong? You’re not backing out now, are you?” 

I may have praised his smile earlier, but right now it’s making my eye twitch. I’m a little peeved knowing he brought me out here for shits and giggles when I could’ve at least been resting in bed, replenishing some of my energy. I know I don’t have the best sleeping habits, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get tired from the constant action going on! I don’t even know how long he’s gonna keep me hostage for! But… he’s also right that it’d be kinda shitty to bail now. Besides, I’m already out here so…

I guess all that’s left to do is suck it up and try to make the best of it. 

“Well, do you wanna… go for a walk or something?”

“Sounds perfect to me! Come on, hold my hand, Dove.”

For someone who supposedly didn’t have a plan, he sure took an awful lot of charge during that walk. He suggested we go to Central Park and practically dragged me there despite my common sense screaming to never go to that hellspawn at night. Although, I can’t complain too much. The park’s definitely the best place to see the stars, and tonight had clear skies! He made sure to keep a tight grip on me in case we ran into any classic New York weirdos anyway, so I should probably be less tense. I guess I got used to the guaranteed safety of having literal ninjas around me, I forgot what it was like hanging out with a regular person. 

On top of that, Zane seemed really happy! Happier than I’ve seen him in a while, actually. He was giddily pointing out any interesting greenery we saw and rambling random facts he knew about them. 

Even later, when we went and dined inside a relatively fancy restaurant, all he could focus on was the different plants they chose as decor. He’s such a huge nature geek, but he’d never let anyone know. Zane’s the type of guy to get 100% on a biology test and shamefully shove it in his backpack to avoid being labeled as a nerd. Being a nerd myself, I think it’s pretty cool, so I never understood it. But either way, I’m glad he feels safe around me. I’m glad he doesn’t hide around me.

I forgot about this side of him, I really did. The side that is my friend.

We were walking back to my place, taking in the bliss of the quiet night. Even if a part of me prefers the busier, noisy parts of the city, it’s really soothing to experience the calmer sides of it too. Everything about tonight feels nearly perfect. I’m surprised nothing ruined it. I’m debating if I could ruin it…

I really want to talk to him. I wanna bring up those photos, get some answers, put my strange emotions to rest once and for all. I wanna hear it from him that neither of them meant to hurt me. That this was just my mind screwing me over again. I need to know. I really need to know. 

You know, friends are supposed to lend a shoulder when you need it.

I don’t want to ruin the night. But friendship takes risks sometimes. That’s what shows its strength, right?

I take a deep breath and go for the leap of faith.

“So, I was wondering—” “Salena, I wanted to ask—” 

I really gotta work on my timing for these things.

“S-Sorry! You go first.”

He shook his head with a delicate smile. “Nah, it’s okay. You can go.”

“Are you sure? I-I mean it’s kinda complicated…”

“Yeah, I’m sure! I always love hearing you talk, anyway.” 

“O-okay then, well…” My hands balled up into determined fists and I looked him right in the eyes. I have to put an end to this or I’ll never be able to move on. “I’ll be real, it might be a weird question.But you’re my friend and I really trust you a lot. I… I have to know this, so please don’t get mad.”

“Yeah…?” Why did he have to lean in closer…

I came this far, I’m not letting my tongue shut me up again. 

“What’s going on with you and Jaiden?”

Immediately his demeanor changed. His posture slouched, the disappointment clear as day on his face. “Jaiden? You’re—you’re really thinking about… about them, now?” 

“Yes, b-but I want to stop! That’s why I need to ask you this, so please bear with me, Zane.”

He leaned back with a hand on his hip, the other covering his face as he exhaled. “And here I was getting my hopes up for nothing.”

He would never think that I heard him; Zane’s a good whisperer. Unfortunately, my hearing rivals it.

He looked at me again; his eyes didn’t feel the same. “Okay, fine. What is it?”

I felt my stomach twist into itself. My chest began to ache. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I was about to hurl.

It’s okay. Friends get a little upset at each other all the time. Doesn’t mean they’ll break apart. Don’t be a coward, Salena. 

I told him about everything. The canceled plans, Jaiden’s distant behavior, the increase in their pics together on his Instagram. I vented about how frustrated I felt with seeing them spend so much time together and then completely ignore me. And then vented some more about how frustrated I felt from that frustration, how I knew it was wrong yet couldn’t help it seeping into my everyday life! I let out a lot of steam tonight, even things I didn’t plan on telling him. The only things I left out, honestly, were anything related to the turtles to hide their identity. And to avoid any irrelevant questions.

He seemed strangely chipper hearing all of this, a curiously amused smirk plastered on his face. Not the reaction I expected, but I guess it’s better than him flipping out like I thought he would. 

“So, if I’m getting this right, you see me and Jaiden hanging out more often and it actually bothers you?”

“I don’t want it to but yeah, it bothers me a whole fucking lot. It’s taken over my life and I hate it! I hate being jealous! It’s so—“ 

“You’re jealous!? You’re jealous! Oh man, I can’t believe I am living in the same timeline where the Salena Moni is experiencing jealousy like every. Average. Lowlife. Person!” 

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead and rub it in, why dontcha? That helps me so much.” I pouted.

He laughed, enjoying my misery. “I know, I’m sorry. Just, damn! Somewhere, pigs are flying aren’t they?” If Meat Sweats could fly, I’d be his murderous Cupid.

“Har har. I get it though. I mean, you know me! I’ve felt envious before, but jealous? How does anyone even deal with this…?” I held myself a little tighter.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, Dove. It happens! Everyone gets a little jealous. It’s a normal thing to go through, Salena.”

“Yeah, I sure did want a normal life, so I guess I got what I wished for.” I can’t help feeling salty over all this. 

He only laughed and patted my hair, fluffing up the ponytail a little. 

“Hey, Zane? For the sake of my psyche, you sure I’m not a bad person for this?”

A tender sigh rang through my ears. “I’m sure. You could never be a bad person, Salena.” 

…I never realized a husky voice like his could feel so honeyed.

But he’s right. I’m not a bad person, I’m just human. If both him and Raph said the same thing, it’s more likely to be true.

“And for the record, Jaiden and I are just friends right now. There’s nothing going on between us, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Uh… Cool? I… might be a little lost here. Why are you telling me that?”

“Reassurance, obviously.”

I blinked, not really getting it or knowing how to respond. He thought for a moment, then had a face of realization while he giggled.

“Oh my god, don’t tell me you’re actually that innocent! You’re so cute, I swear!” He booped my nose and leaned in again with a huge smile. He lowered his voice almost to a whisper. “You’re jealous because you have a crush.” 

A crush?

“But why would I have a crush on Jaiden?” 

“I’m just saying—Wait, rewind. A crush on Jaiden?” He physically paused for a bit before awkwardly laughing. “No, sweetie, you don’t get jealous of your crush, you get jealous of the people they’re with!”

“That’s why I’m asking. Why would I have a crush on Jaiden?”

…Why does the air feel colder all of a sudden? 

The night was warm just a minute ago, but now it’s dead like the core of winter. His smile is long gone. His eyes, they’re slicing me in half. Is my breathing a little faster? He’s coming closer. I’m suddenly aware of just how alone we really are here in this silent little street. 

“To be clear. Who are you jealous of.”

My throat clogged up. I blinked and lowered my eyes so he wouldn’t see the tears being fought back. I forgot this side of him, too. The side that made my heart close in on itself.

“Salena, don’t make me ask twice.”

“Of you.” I managed to let out. “J-jealous of you.”

He wouldn’t speak for a while. Only felt him staring me down like a predator stalking its prey, making me swallow to keep my throat from drying up. My hands felt so clammy, begging me to wipe them on my skirt. But I didn’t dare move. I couldn’t even look at him right now.

“Of fucking course you are.”

I knew it was coming, but I still flinched when he cursed with no shame, tugging his hair and punching the wall next to me. It’s stupid, isn’t it? I can handle giant mutants and a literal cult of evil, but Zane’s temper was not something to be messed with, and my unlucky ass did exactly that.

“Why did I ever expect anything different! Of course it’s me you’re jealous of! Why the fuck would you phrase it like that if you meant something else, god dammit!”

You’re gonna bleed if you keep doing that…

“Z-Zane, I’m sorry. I-I didn’t think it’d come off as me being jealous of Jaiden—“

“OBVIOUSLY, IT FUCKING WOULD!!!” He grabbed my shoulders, bringing me closer to him. I don’t know if it’d be an exaggeration to say I nearly got a panic attack from the action alone. 

“When you say things like how you’re jealous of how much time Jaiden and I spend together, of course I think you’re jealous of them, not me! Why would I ever assume it was me! That never happens with anyone else! God, you’re such a fucking moron sometimes, I swear!” 

“I'm sorry… P-please stop…”

“After everything we’ve fucking been through, everything I did for you! All you can ever do is somehow relate me back to Jaiden! There’s always someone else! I mean nothing to you, Salena! Don’t I!? I! Mean! Nothing!”

“I-I didn’t mean to, I promise—”

“THAT DOESN’T MATTER, IDIOT!”

He let go and pushed me back. Sometimes I overlook how much bigger Zane is compared to me. This is not one of those times. 

“You know what? You know what’s funny, Salena? That night you’re so fucking fixated on, the one that’s consumed your ability to even think like a normal person? Yeah, I’ve got some news about that night.” 

I just want to disappear…

“I asked Jaiden to go with me to that shitty party on purpose!”

…

What?

“I asked them on purpose, I posted those pictures on purpose! I did everything ‘cause I knew you’d see it! I thought maybe then, for once, you’d finally, finally feel a single ounce of longing for me! That was all I wanted!”

What.

“…You better be lying, Zane.”

“I’m not. And you deserve this.”

I glared at him the entire time while he was too focused on his own bullshit words to even notice. My arms burned with the sensation of my nails digging deeper and deeper. I hope they'll draw blood.

“You don’t understand, Salena! You keep saying all these… all these stupid fucking things that no one else says to me! Do you know what it does to me? If I had my way, I’d hold you forever and never let you go. No one’s shown me kindness like you.”  I was so numb I couldn’t even react to him caressing my cheek. Only kept glaring. 

“But then you barely ever give me the time of day! You’re barely ever with me! Fuck, honestly, you’re never with me anymore! I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not like you to say one thing and do another! You’re not that type of two-faced asshole! So why are you fucking acting like one!? Ever since that day you went to ‘hang out’ with that stupid drugged-out bitch you called a friend, you’ve never been the fucking same! With the way you act, I wouldn’t be fucking surprised if you got addicted and stay on the high 24/7!”

He’s… Is he talking about Mikey? That’s what this is about? Is he fucking serious right now.

“Who are you!? Where is my Salena?” 

“Did you know Jaiden and I had plans that day?”

“No, I didn’t. I’m not stupid, I wasn’t gonna go that far. I wanted you to get a taste of what it felt to not be chosen, that’s it! Obviously, it was dumb to think it would work!” The dumb bitch sighed, exasperated. As if he had any right to be. “Seems you don’t have room for me in that big heart of yours after all, huh? Maybe I’m a dick for saying this, but it’s honestly karma that I happened to choose the one day you two were gonna hang out. That’s gotta be a sign, Salena.”

You never get the fucking hint, do you Zane Evans?

“I need to go.”

I couldn’t even get two steps in before he gripped my wrist to stop me.

“Wait, what do you mean go? Go where?”

“I meant exactly what I said! I’ve had enough. Now let go of me.”

I yanked my arm back and stormed off, Zane following close behind. At least, judging from the sound he was. I didn’t bother looking back. 

“Hey! Your place is in the opposite direction!”

“Stop following me, I can go wherever I want!”

“Salena, seriously!? It’s already late, you’re gonna get lost! Come on, are you really that pissed off—”

“YES!!!”

I turned my heel and faced him.

“How are you even unsure of that!? You got upset I hung out with someone else for one day—a person I made plans with in advance, might I add—and you decided to take revenge on me!? Do you have any clue how fucked up that is!?”

“I got a little mad! So what? You’ve known me for two years! Stop overreacting about a harmless dig!”

“Harmless!? You have no idea what I’ve gone through this past month because of your little ‘harmless’ stunt! I’ve suffered so much because of you! I can’t even sleep because of you! God, sometimes you’re so—Ugh!”

I began counting down from ten to one, just like Raph taught. I shouldn’t say something I’ll regret later. Honestly, I shouldn’t have said anything at all.

He looked like a sad puppy. It’s clear he wasn’t expecting this. But somehow, my sympathy won’t halt my anger tonight.

“Salena, I… Look, I didn’t know you’d be so sensitive over this—“

“Zane, I really need to leave. I’m sorry I exploded like that, but it’s gonna happen again if I stay here any longer. So please, just stop following me. Hurting you would add more shit to my plate and I really don’t need that right now, okay?” 

“N-no! Stay! I can make it up to you!”

“Another day, any day, but not now! Not now.”

I walked away and this time he didn’t follow. 

“…Fine.”

I heard his footsteps stomp in the other direction, slowly fading away.

My own legs went faster till the wind consumed me. 

The anger returned almost instantly after I knew he left. I’m happy I kept my cool during the end back there but holy fucking shit! What was he thinking!? I wanted answers tonight but I didn’t expect this! I thought I was overthinking again! I thought my brain made up the possibility that they ditched me intentionally! But no, turns out it wasn’t just Jaiden but Zane, too! What the fuck did I do to them? What did he mean I “deserved it”!? 

I don’t get it, what is he expecting me to do? I know he… feels a certain way about me. But even then! I can’t just shit romantic feelings for him out my ass! 

Ugh, so fucking stupid. I’m gonna lose my head if I keep thinking about this.

I wandered around the city some more and got back to the main road where a good handful of cars were passing again. It’s past 1am now and I’ve gotta get ready for school in less than five hours. But I know damn well I won’t sleep, not after this. I don’t wanna go home. Take me anywhere but home. I don’t feel like facing any of this right now, I…

I want somewhere I can feel safe for a while, just so the day won’t end on such a horrible note.

I pulled out my phone and opened the contacts. I wish I was one of those folks who didn’t have to think of someone before they dialed but alas, here I am. 

I can’t talk to Jaiden. 

I obviously can’t talk to Zane.

I don’t know if I can tell Casey any of this yet.

I’d love to talk to April but she’s probably asleep by now. But… but the guys might not be! They’re usually up at these sort of freakish hours of the night. I could try giving the group chat a call and hope for the best. I feel bad for bothering them so often but who else do I have right now?

It took three rings before the line went through.

“You are conversing with Donatell—Why is your screen so dark?” 

Oh fucking lovely.

“H-hey, Donnie. Sorry, I didn’t realize it was a video call.”

As my luck would have it, Donnie was the one to pick up. No offense to him; he never did anything wrong. I’m just not entirely sure how he feels about me yet. So, having him answer when I’m already high on nerves isn’t what I pictured hoping for the best would result in. But he’s much, much better than being alone right now.

“Uh, what… Whatcha up to?”

“Oh, simply being my usual genius self to aid with our nightly hero duties! Sure, no regular teenager could detect a break-in on sensitive confidential info before the actual government could, but I, Othello Von Ryan, have proven to be no regular teen!” 

“Yep, definitely the usual for you.” 

Donnie’s def no less than Leo when it comes to being allergic to humility. Though, they both earned their egos. Donnie’s not wrong; not just any person could be nearly as smart as him.

“So, did you need anything fixed? You’re calling at a rather unusual hour for a school night.” 

“Oh, no, not really. I mean, I was kinda out with a friend, but things… ended abruptly. I don’t really feel like sleeping right now. I wanted some company?” 

He opened his mouth to respond but got interrupted by a familiar accent asking who was on the phone. The instant my name left his voice, three others repeated it with joy. My screen suddenly overflowed with four green goofballs all trying to fit in the camera’s scope at once.

“SALENA! How are you? How come you’re not asleep? Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

“Mikey, it’s Salena, it’s way too early for them to sleep.”

“Wow, Leo, anyone ever tell you how funny you are?” My words didn’t match my tone. I wonder why.

“Leo, let ‘er breathe!” The camera shook as a red bandana came into frame. “Hey, but for real. Why you up so late, Salena? Somethin’ up?”

“Nah, just couldn’t sleep! I thought I’d call you guys for a bit, but from the sounds of it, y’all seem kinda busy.” 

The camera moved again as the device got transferred to the next turtle. “Give me my—Ugh, there we go. And yes, you’re correct. We are actually busy with a mission tonight.” 

I tried keeping my smile intact as I understandingly nodded my head. Is he mad at me for assuming they were free the exact moment I needed them to be? I mean, I’d be mad at me, so it’d make sense.

“Hey, but you know what?” Leo leaned next to Donnie, trying to see the screen. “You should totally join us! Tag along, have some fun, we’d all love that!”

You would?

“What? Nardo, what are you—“

“OMIGOSH, YEAH!” Mikey jumped in, knocking Donnie out of frame entirely. “If you’re not gonna sleep, we should totally hang out! I really miss you, Salena!” 

“Uh, am I really the only one thinking it would be a bad idea to let the person who barely leaves their house join us on a mission to a highly-secured and regulated government facility?”

“Chillax, Don, she’ll be fine! You’ll be fine, right Salena?”

“I mean, uh—” 

“See? What’d I tell ya, totally fine!” 

“Raph agrees! Salena can handle herself.” 

“Oh sure, I’m absolutely positive nothing could go wrong! He said without a trace of doubt.”

…I can’t tell if he’s trying to protect me or just doesn’t want me there. Neither option feels good right now, to be honest.

“C’mon, Dee, we’ve all seen her fight before! Including you, remember? When they helped us stop Meat Sweats?”

 Mikey’s got a point. That was before I had any real battle experience, too! I don’t know why Donnie seems so hesitant about this. Or why it’s making me so pissy, actually.

Another car passed by and I lowered the volume a bit, remembering the time. Now that I’m actually near some apartments, I don’t wanna accidentally wake someone up. I really gotta save up for some new earbuds; my last ones broke like, a month ago and I can only make do for so long.

“Three to one, hermano. You’re outnumbered.”

“But—Sigh, forget it! Salena, I—“

“‘NOUGH SMALL TALK!” At this point, they’re just playing hot potato with Donnie’s phone. “Salena, hurry up! We’re boutta start the mission so don’t want ya missin’ out!”

“Ha! Almost made a pun!”

“Shut up, Leo. Anyways, we’re at uh… Uh… Hey, Donnie, where we at?” 

I could hear him struggling for his phone in the distance. “You could just send our coordinates!”

“I could send her our coordinates! …How does Raph do that, again?”

The audio muffled as the phone shuffled back to its rightful owner. “God, I’m so gonna install security on this thing. Anyway, I’m sending our location to you right now. And as I was GOING TO SAY BEFORE! Salena, I look forward to seeing you again.”

He flashed a smile and part of my worries vanished. I’m still not sure how to read him but if he’s being nice, it can’t be all bad, right?

“OH, AND IF YA CAN, COULD YOU BRING ME A SNACK—“ Donnie hung up before the teddy bear could finish.

Luckily for him, his face beamed when I finally arrived around twenty minutes later and did, in fact, bring him a snack. 

“Hey guys! Hope I didn’t take—“

I couldn’t even finish speaking before finding myself laughing on the floor with four giant turtles hounding me in hugs. 

“It has been way too long since we’ve hugged!” Poor Mikey, I haven’t been able to see him in a hot minute. “Nice ponytail, by the way. Really makes your eyes pop.”

“Aww, thanks! I missed you guys too. Ugh, I really wish scheduling was easier! I’d hang out more often.” 

“Dude, why waste time on schedules when you could just come over?”

“‘Xactly! Ain’t like you’re not welcome!”

“Oh. I-I mean, sure! If you guys really don’t have a problem with it…” I wonder if this is what it’s like to feel wanted.

“I just wanted you to get a taste of what it felt to not be chosen!”

…T-then again, they’re probably just being polite.

Click!

“And fits perfectly, just as the estimations foretold!” The fuck? 

I looked down and saw a shiny black belt matching the arm wraps now resting above my hips. It’s actually fairly loose around my waist but I’m guessing that was the intention. There’s a giant pink button on the left with the same M-shaped logo as all of theirs. It looked super cool, honestly! Even seemed to match with my outfit!

“Woaaah, what is this thing?”

“Donnie. Really?” Leo didn’t sound impressed and neither did the others but, like, who cares! The belt’s dope as hell!

He ignored them and continued addressing me. “It basically functions both as your very own panic button and is a carrier for your sickles thanks to a highly specific magnetic attraction! Plus, it obviously helps tie in your outfit better ‘cause Great Galileo did you need some accessories.”

“Damn, I didn’t know my sickles were magnetic!”

“Oh, they weren’t before, I installed magnets in them last night.” With that, he pulled my fucking weapons seemingly out of his ass. Judging by everyone else’s groans though, I’m the only one who’s surprised and confused.

“Donald! What did we say about breaking into strangers’ homes!” 

“Hey, I didn’t break in!… to a stranger’s home! I broke into Salena’s, Salena is not a stranger—OW, HEY!” Raph slapped the back of his head. One quick yet dramatic recovery later, we all began our route of sneaking into the building. 

Security wasn’t monitoring the higher floors, so we only had to ninja our way up ‘till there and the rest was easy peasy. I tried focusing on the quick briefing I was receiving on the way up but my mind was admittedly elsewhere. Back to the weird situation I thought I dreamt up last night.

I don’t remember much. I was too tired to really register anything, and Donnie being a ninja probably enhanced that. But I do remember still hearing faint footsteps in my room; drawers being opened, the closet getting browsed. I was so out of it I figured I probably hallucinated everything. Either way, I was way too paralyzed to do anything; I couldn’t even put my phone back earlier. Kept passing in and out of consciousness. But it seemed like someone put it back for me. They helped my sloppy body into a position that wouldn’t leave me aching the next morning and pulled the covers up to tuck me in. What really sealed the whole dream theory to me was the metallic-textured “hand” that patted my head before they left and let the world return to tranquility.

I seriously did figure it was all a weird fever dream or some shit. Personally, I still feel like that’s more believable than it being Donnie all along. But staring down at my sickles, I guess I can’t really argue against the proof right in front of me. 

“Gentlemen, here we are! The Techno Cosmic Research Institute! Otherwise known as”—the door opened as I returned back to present time—“The TCRI.”

The moon illuminated the flat, revealing that we were in a main lobby of some sorts. Huge and spacious, decorated with different plants I’m sure Zane would’ve gone crazy over. 

…I shouldn’t think about him right now.

It was a huge and spacious lobby full of plants. The windows that were tinted from the outside now presented a full view of the city skyline. Doors were carved into the walls, transitioning to the other rooms. Some, like the several meeting rooms, were made with glass so I could vaguely make out the interior from here. Others were blocked by heavy, solid, metal doors, holding whatever secrets the government had behind them.

I felt strange setting foot in this place, like I wasn’t supposed to be here. Well, I guess we are breaking and entering, but it’s not that. It’s something else, something I can’t quite explain. Unrelated to the guys but personal to me. I feel I’m not wanted for a reason I’m not yet aware of. It’s freaking me out a little. 

“So, what do the Purple Dragons want with this place again?”

“Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. I only caught a break-in to the system in general and tracked it back to Kendra, I don’t have info on what they’re trying to gain access to. Whatever it is, though, it has an impressively tight security system that’s nearly impossible to break! At least, not through their simple B-tier remote hacking.”

“If the Purple Dragons want it, then it’s gotta be something major.” I’ve known about them for a while thanks to April. 

It kinda shocked me at first, not because a group of teens created a tech-smart gang but because April O’Neil was a loser to someone. Call me a little biased—and you’d be right—but I still think Kendra’s got rocks for brains if she ignores someone like April. 

But that’s a mental essay for another day. Right now, Leo’s smirking. And if Leo’s smirking, things will either go amazingly well or horrifically wrong. 

“So… If we’re already here, why don’t we just figure out what they want ourselves?”

Mikey propped his chin up on Leo’s shoulder. “You mean like, go and explore? Sounds rad to me!”

“Yeah! Sneak around, let Donnie do his nerdy smart people stuff and see what’s so great about this place, yeah?” 

“Invade the privacy of our nation’s government and scavenge for confidential data!? Nardo, I love you!”

“Raph? Your call, buddy.”

He was shockingly quick to shrug. “Sure! Raph don’t see a problem with it. Sounds hella fun to me!”

“Uh, guys?” I raised my hand. “Isn’t this, like, highly illegal?” 

“And?” They all said in unison. To be fair, legal doesn’t sound like them anyway. 

“What are they gonna do? Arrest us?” His hand circled in front of his blue bandana.

“And don’t worry, you won’t get in trouble for anything that happens! Donnie can get rid of the evidence and no one will know you were here, right Dee?” Mikey shot a wink at Donnie.

“Affirmative!” 

Dang, Mikey’s made a lot of good points tonight. 

“Eh, you’re right. To hell with laws!” Passing up an opportunity to explore a space institution would be laughably unlike me, anyway! 

We decided to split up and meet back at the main lobby in fifteen, assuming the Purple Dragons hadn't arrived by then. It’s kind of scary wandering on my own in this place. It still feels off to me, but at the same time, I’ve always wanted so desperately to walk through a facility like this. Fascinating space research, meeting after meeting to discuss whatever new breakthrough was made, access to a shit ton of databases and technologies I’ll never have the chance to use at home!? Everything about this place is perfect! It’s all I dreamed it to be. 

So why won’t that damn feeling go away?

Whatever, it’s probably just tonight in general. I really, really, need to get over it and move on already or else I’m guaranteed to fuck up the whole mission.

I sighed and glanced down at my arm wraps, raising them to get a better look. Despite my flip-floppy mood, I couldn’t help but smile. It’s dorky but they do comfort me every now and then. They felt nice to wear and even looking at them made me all fuzzy and nostalgic. They feel like an older me even though I got them recently. 

“I take it you liked them, then.” 

His voice startled me, I thought everyone went their own ways but I guess Donnie was nearby. 

“Yeah, I do! The belt, too, they’re really cool gifts! Thank you.” He lit up when he heard those magic words. Man, I can’t believe I forgot to thank him sooner. Poor guy was probably aching for some feedback.

“I-I actually always wondered how you made them. They feel really sturdy but like, it’s not heavy to wear, either, if that makes sense.”

“Oh yeah, totally!” He typed on the screen on his arm, booting up the scanning feature to make sure we didn’t miss anything. “It’s an intentional design choice. They are supposed to act as armor, so.”

“Woah, cool! Do they count as tactical gear? As in military grade and all that jazz?”

“What? No, that’s not even good quality, that’s just a buzzword. Military grade simply means they met the minimum stated requirements at the lowest unit price.”

“…”

“…Low budget, few money, lead to mid product, good enough for gullible minds and general public consumption.” 

Ohhhh. “So they lied.”

“As per usual. It’s shit engineering in actuality.”

I pushed open one of the meeting rooms’ glass doors as Donnie’s shell held up a bright torch. We began scouting the area for anything interesting while continuing our talk. All this investigative work’s reminding me of April and the way she’d gush about doing the same. Completely understanding the appeal now; it feels so thrilling snooping around somewhere you’re not supposed to be! Especially when the law’s involved.

The room wasn’t anything unordinary. It looked like any other corporate meeting room. The long table leading to the small TV on the wall, decorative paintings and plants, the usual. Man, we probably should’ve gone into a more interesting—“OW!”

“…Watch your step.” He said after I already fell to my knees.

“Thanks for the very useful warning. What even was that?”

He shined the light closer to a… metal? No, definitely not entirely metal. A robot arm sloppily plopped on the floor. We couldn’t see what the arm was attached to, if it was attached to anything at all. It’s too long to trace back with the torch light from where we are. One thing’s for sure, though: It’s giant. The claw I tripped over is practically the same size as my head. 

“Hmm…” He crouched closer to the arm, slowly inspecting it. “Weird. It looks like it’s made of some cheap plastic. Perhaps a prototype of some sorts.”

“I don’t think they’d make it this big if it was a prototype.” Maybe we could do a test to see what type of plastic it is. “You got any fire?”

“While I see your angle and would love to carry through that experiment, it’s probably not wise to burn something we don’t know the purpose of. Or, you know, alert the security of our presence from the alarms.”

“Yeah, fair…” Man, would’ve been hella fun, though. 

We both stayed on the floor, a little stumped on what the hell this thing was. My eyes got bored after a while and wandered around the room again. The only interesting thing in here was this weird ass plastic arm, it’s pretty much useless looking around the room but it did keep me entertained. There were five plants in this room which explains the fresh smell, all of them were basic enough for me to recognize. Two zebra plants, a ponytail palm, and…

I ignored the plant on the table when I spotted something thin underneath it, hidden by the shadows. I think it’s a slip of paper?

Donnie’s sigh brought my attention back. “You know what, I’m gonna go to their computer lab to see if one of their databases has anything about this thing.”

“Aight, I’ll stay back and keep exploring. Good luck!”

Right as he left, I sped over to the mysterious paper, unable to contain my curiosity any longer. The table was tall enough for me to comfortably sit under, leaning over the paper on the floor to read it. It’s, coincidentally enough, about that puzzling arm. The incomplete text made it clear it was probably part of a stack of paper or a file and fell out. Sadly, it didn’t reveal much but what I could get out of it was that it’s an automated arm controlled by an AI system, mostly covered with polypropylene plastic. Heh, PP plastic. Oh, it was created for the purpose of security. Well that’s just fantastic. I should go warn the boys about it.

I quickly snapped a pic of the loose sheet, almost getting out from under the table.

…But I’m glad as hell I didn’t.

I heard it. A soft, mechanical hum as something slithered off the ground. I grabbed my sickles from their belt, trying to minimize my shaking. It took a few blinks and tries but I managed to turn invisible, watching the machine move through the darkness. How was it suddenly on?

Its movements were smooth and natural. Too natural for something meant to be robotic. It’s so eerily graceful, slithering through the air. The arm swiveled its claw around like an animal head checking its surroundings. It… It’s looking where I am. It’s looking at me. It shouldn’t be able to see me, I’m not supposed to be visible! But it won’t stop staring.

”FUCK!” I shrieked when it lunged at me, quickly slicing it before it could grab me. Thank god it’s just plastic… Why the fuck is it hollow? 

That doesn’t make any sense! Shouldn’t there be wiring or something? Even if not to connect the AI, how the hell can it move like that without anything to mimic muscle!? 

I gasped, turning my head to the side. I can hear something else. It’s gooey and mushy and… 

It’s looping around the room.

It’s getting louder.

”W-what the hell?”

…I think I can see it now. Something solid but stretchy, resembling thick vines climbing up the plastic arm. I backed up, watching as it crawled over to the newly severed claw. It pulled the claw back to its other half and tightened around them. It glowed? A sickeningly blinding green color. Before I realized what was going on, the claw suddenly reattached as the vines slinked back into the darkness. 

It saw me again and the chase resumed. 

It’s so damn fast, I can barely outrun it! Dodging is saving my ass but it keeps knocking over any furniture I used against it! 

I jumped when I heard Donnie from the comms. Wait, he installed comms on my arm wraps? Damn, I'm so frazzled, I forgot about those.

“What’s making all that racket? Everything okay over there?”

”You can hear that!?”

”Yeah, I’m literally right next door?”

”Well—SHIT!” Too fucking close, too fucking close! It almost fucking grabbed me! Fuck, my knees hurt from that! “SON OF A—Don’t worry, I can handle it! I’ll explain soon!”

I tried getting off the floor as quickly as possible but the claw pulled me back down. The four sharp grippers opened up like a mouth and a fucking chainsaw came out. It went straight for my head, life flashing before my eyes as my sickles blocked it by pure reflex, holding it back. It won’t back off! I can’t keep pushing forever! How the hell do I get out of this!?

“FIBONACCI!” 

A spinning titanium blur whacked the arm back, grabbing its attention to the maniacally smiling turtle now dashing through the room. His arm reached out, grabbing his staff from mid-air, and chopped off the robot arm with a giant drill. I curled in on myself right before a bright, violet shield spread over me and kept the arm’s falling metal parts from landing on me.

“You know, that did not seem like ‘handling it’.” 

My vision cleared to his hand offering to help me up. I’m suddenly getting deja vu from the other countless times my helpless damsel-wannabe ass needed a rescue. Panicked and guilt-ridden, I waved it off and got up on my own. 

“We gotta get outta here right now!”

“What? Why? I already—”

The vines returned and began repeating their process of fixing the arm. Though this time, it seems to be going faster.

“Oh my banana pancakes! What is that!?”

“I don’t know but that’s why we’re leaving! Come on!”

I grabbed his hand and we ran out the room, running into the others in the main lobby.

”Leo! There’s—”

“Crazy killer robot arms, we know. Was just in the middle of talking about that, actually.” He gave a glance of disapproval to the pouting red giant next to Mikey. Who also looks hella annoyed. It would appear we’ve walked in on a teensy squabble. 

I heard Donnie sigh beside me “Raph, please tell me you didn’t.” He left my clueless ass standing there to join in on their talk.

Wait—Oh god, not again!

Turning around, I grabbed my sickles. I heard it again. Managed to dodge just in time for its jab to my right. It seems the guys are too busy to notice and I really don’t wanna burden them again. I’ll solo this one!

“When I said we should go explore, I didn’t mean go ‘round pushing things! We’re in a government building, why would you touch anything!?”

I heard another hit coming and blocked it with the blade. 

Yeah, I-I can totally take this! I should let them finish their conversation—Holy fuck, there’s more than one, fucking end my suffering already. 

”I didn’t mean to! You guys know I got a weak spot, what was I supposed to do? If they didn’t want Raph to push the big, red button, maybe they shouldn’t make it big ‘n red!” 

“Buddy, that’s not how that works and you know that.”

There’s three of them now and they’re so unreasonably fast! It’s so hard to keep up! Ugh, it almost feels like I am being punished after all. 

My accidental yelp luckily got drowned by Mikey’s groan. “Man, just let it go! We can smell your ‘I know I fucked up but don’t wanna admit it ‘cause I’m the big brother’ stench!”

”THAT’S A DIFFERENT STENCH!”

”AHH!” 

I really didn’t mean to blurt that out but the claw dug into my leg and yanked me off the ground! Guilt aside, it’s probably a good thing I caught their attention, especially since I dropped my sickles like a fucking moron!

“SALENA!” His sword slashed through the air but got promptly blocked and thrown back by another metal claw. A scary amount of them are showing up now! The guys are completely surrounded and I’m stuck useless, dangling in the air!

One of the arms came closer and opened its grippers, a scanner popping out this time, its red beam blinding my eyes. My breathing grew shallow, the commotion from below fading away. I’m getting lightheaded from being suspended upside down. I need to get out of this situation. But there’s nothing I can do. Just squint past the light and anxiously wait for its next move. 

My ears burned from the claw’s monstrous shriek. It sounds like a fucking animalistic version of nails on a chalkboard! Why did it react to me like this? Why me? Aren’t we all intruders? Why is it just me!?

“You deserve this.”

Was he right?

I didn’t process getting swung in the air until I was let go with enough momentum to cause a crash through the decor. My arms shook as I tried lifting my body up. Everything hurts, everything fucking hurts! My ears, my arms, my legs! My head! I just wanted a little distraction tonight! Why is this happening?

Is this really my karma?

…Wait a sec.

When I managed to lift my head, I came face to face with a crack in the wall where the robot arms were emerging from. The vines I saw earlier turned out to be permanently merged with the arms at the roots and lead to… something behind the wall. The crack was too small to properly make much out but it looked like it was breathing?

Whatever, I don’t have time to be surprised. “Guys! The arms! They’re coming from over here!” 

The crack’s small but just big enough for something slim! Like—

The claw dug into my leg once again and began dragging me away. “Leo! Donnie! One of your weapons can fit through!” 

“Got it!”

“I’ll cover!”

Flashes of blue scattered around the lobby. Each portal and throw of his sword brought Leo closer and closer to the wall. I couldn’t watch for too long, though, as I found myself back in the air again. It froze my skin getting thrown across the room faster than before. This time, towards the glass windows. 

Chains grabbed at my ankle and yanked me back to the ground away from my disastrous fate. I looked up to see the tangerine flashing a confident yet relieved smile at me. “Hey!”

“…Hey!” 

Mystic metal clinked as Mikey pulled back some of the robot arms chasing after Leo to buy him more time. Raph and Donnie quickly shifted gears and guarded me to make sure the plastic freaks couldn’t grab me again. Mikey continued to aid Leo, bouncing all over the room, keeping the arms distracted with his flow and somehow, still bringing them back to where he originally stood: Away from Leo. 

Finally, a sword was heard stabbing through the air and splashing through a soft, squishy substance. The arms dropped to the floor as the thing in the wall hissed in pain, slowly leading to the dreadfully awaited silence at last.

Mikey reached his hand out for me and pulled me up. “You good?”

“Not dead, yeah.” 

“Guess that’s a start.”

I glanced to the side at Donnie staring blankly at me, confused until he walked over and held one of my arms to examine my wrap. 

“Hmm, I wonder if there’s some modification I can do to your gloves that prevents your sickles from getting so easily lost.” I guess that’s why he was staring a minute ago. 

“Honestly, that’d be great. I keep losing them, so…”

“Yeah, I was thinking—“ 

“Nerd-talk later! Do a med scan!” Leo shoved him out the way and accidentally knocked Mikey back. Didn’t seem like he noticed since he immediately started checking me for injuries. I don’t even know when he got here?

Donnie sighed but went through with it anyway, tapping on his wrist as he checked my vitals. “No broken bones, no internal bleeding, nothing too concerning to report thankfully. Salena, do you feel alright?” 

“Mhm! Just some scratches here and there but I’ll live.” 

“Just some scratches, hm? You forgettin’ something?” Leo pointed down to my horrifically bruised and bloody leg. Whoops.

“…I-I’ll still live.”

While Leo took care of bandaging my leg, the rest of us spent the next few minutes catching our breaths. Mikey laid on the floor, limbs starfished out, while Donnie was texting April and catching her up to speed. I can only imagine how devastated she’d be in the morning, finding out she missed all this action. It’d have been nice having her here, honestly. 

Raph wasn’t near us, though. He stood by the wall where the once-breathing specimen was at. He kept peeking through the crack, rubbing his arm and looking hesitant about something.

“Raph?” My voice prompted the others to turn their attention to him.

“…Nobody else wonderin’ what the hell this thing could be? I know we’re only here to stop the Purple Dinos—“

“That’s Purple Dragons, Raphala.”

“—Whatever! But really, guys! After all that, we just gonna head home and forget about it?” 

He’s not wrong.

Come to think of it, this place is government funded. There should be no reason why some foreign entity exists in a place like the TCRI. They’re supposed to do space research and nothing else. That’s what they’re paid for.

“You know what?” Donnie turned his phone off. “I could work on hacking through their system myself. I don’t know if it’ll prove successful, but I can try.”

I felt Mikey’s head drop on my shoulder. He sure loves doing that. “What do we do about the vine thingies?” 

“Well, we can’t just—“ Leo paused, making eye contact with Raph. They shared a smirk and nodded.

“You thinkin’ what thinkin’ big bro?”

He chuckled, punching his fists together. “You bet!”

A bright red aura surrounded his figure as his arm reeled back and locked the sais in his hands.

“POWER PUNCH JUTSU!!!”

My body staggered as the ground shook upon impact, the dust clearing to reveal the tiny gap in the wall is suddenly a giant ass hole now.

“Man, y’all really don’t give a shit about government property, do ya?” 

“Nope. But hey! It was def the right choice!” Raph’s snaggletooth gleamed through his mischievous smile.

The five of us stared through the hole, trying to comprehend the oversized specimen in front of us. It was a pulsing, yellow-green thing in the shape of a tall tube, wider on the top than the bottom. There were reddish lines on it zigzagging up and down almost like veins. It was punctured at its middle, caused by the blade of the katana that shot right through it a few moments ago. 

“Ya know, it kind of resembles a plant. Which would explain the mystery vines, actually.”

“What plant, then? Ain’t no plant Raph knows of that throbs.”

He shook his head with a light shrug. “Sadly, I am not sure. It looks a little like a pitcher plant but also not really? They shouldn’t be luminescent or have vines emerging out like that. And also the throbbing, of course.” 

Pitcher plant, ay? I’ve heard of that. They’re my favorite out of all the carnivorous jungle plants Zane rambled about once. Plants were actually one of the first things we had a genuine bond over, even if I’m pretty clueless about them. The way his eyes lit up when talking about them with so much love and adoration just melted me.

His eyes…

His godforsaken eyes…

“Salena?”

“Huh?” How long have I been spaced out?

“You sure you’re good? You seemed kinda out of it just now.” I forgot how close Mikey was to me, I should be more careful.

“Yeah, it’s nothing.”

“Really? ‘Cause lowkey, you’ve been off all night. I didn’t wanna say anything but…”

“Oh, no, no, I’m—“

“Actually, you did mention something happened between you and your friend earlier, remember? Before you called me.” This violet ass motherfucker did not just erm actually me at the worst time ever.

“That what this about, big man? Had another fight with your friend?” Why is everyone suddenly focused on me!?

“N-Not the same one! This is someone different, I promise! T-that’s not to say I have a problem with everyone! I just… Um…” Great going, Salena! Now they’ll think you’re just insufferable and incapable of friendship! “I-I don’t think we should be—Well, we kinda have worse issues to worry about, don’t we?”

“Kendra and her yes-men ain’t here yet. What I wanna know is why you’re so spacey tonight! Dr. Feelings can’t help if he can’t know!”

“It’s nothing! N-nothing too bad, at least. He just—A-actually, it was really mostly me so um… It’s hard to explain exactly…”

Geez, my palms are annoyingly sweaty. I really don’t wanna give them the wrong idea, it was just one fight! It’s not a representation of our entire relationship! But I know from experience any time I try talking about Zane to someone, they end up hating him and I don’t want that! Fuck, I should’ve been more careful. My stupid tongue-tied gibberish ain’t helping the situation, either!

My shoulders flinched when I saw Leo stand in front of me, hand on his hip as he faced towards his brothers. “Okay, hermanos, give her some space! Stop smothering! I know we’re all worried, I’m worried too, but if Salena doesn’t wanna talk, they shouldn’t be forced to.”

The others finally piped down. None of them looked happy about it—understandably so—but it seemed Leo was able to convince them to drop it, anyway. I really owe him one. 

He peeked over his shoulder to glance back at me. “If you do wanna talk about something, though, we’re here for you.” 

…It’s not that I don’t want to. I just don’t see how it’d help anything— 

CRASH!!!

HOLY FUCKING SHIT, HAVE WE NOT HAD ENOUGH SURPRISES FOR ONE NIGHT!?

“Good going, Jase. Real quiet of you.”

All of us, equally tense and gripping our weapons to stand guard, took a solid minute to process that the loud crash wasn’t another dumbass robot-plant-arm thing, but instead was Kendra and the other two stumbling through the main door they hacked open. Speak of the dragons and they arrive, I suppose.

She looked over at us and her sharp eyes drooped lower. “Of course.” 

I only ever knew Kendra before tonight, none of the other members. Hate her guts since she’s forever engraved as April’s bully in my mind and doesn’t seem to have changed. Her movements and mannerisms still match the coy, conniving person I remember her to be, walking over in such a smug, superior way that screams “greater than thou”. Once, back when they were still in high school, April had a mini breakdown due to college applications kicking her ass. She was struggling and stressing over not getting accepted into a good amount of her options and believed she’d have to rely solely on her safeties at that point. Kendra really rubbed it in. Wouldn’t shut up about it, demeaning her for being a failure. 

April knows damn well to never take Kendra seriously. However, it’s not a surprise those words still stung considering how stupidly frightening the whole college process is. Joke’s on Kendra, though. One of April’s main choices that had her wait-listed ended up accepting her in! As for Kendra? All hypocritical bark, no bite it seems. 

“Hello, Von Ryan. How’s life?”

“Good, good. How about you, enjoying your—what’d you call it? ‘Intellectual freedom’?” 

“Low blow even for you. You guys couldn’t fuck around here with your little toys another night?” She scoffed and rolled her eyes, her arms crossed over her chest. Her gaze drifted towards me as her brows furrowed more. 

“Who’s that—Hold up. You… Yeah, I remember you!” She’s doing that annoying fake-nice tone she uses sometimes, the one that makes me wanna punch her in the face. “You’re that idiot kid April wouldn’t shut up about tutoring last year! What’s a teacher’s pet like you doing here?”

Mikey gasped and covered my ears like a parent to a toddler witnessing sailor-speak. “Hey! Don’t you dare talk about our friend like that!” 

I honestly couldn’t care less what Kendra says about me. Personally, I’m more focused on the other two, right now. It’s my first time ever seeing them, I think Donnie said their names were Jason and Jeremy? They’ve been pretty quiet so far, standing at her side and smirking like Saturday-morning cartoon lackeys. One of them had a large, blocky figure, dark skin, and dyed green hair. His gold visor looked pretty cool, I’ll admit. The other—I could guess from his hunched demeanor alone—was definitely their token punching bag. He’s got these awkward gloves that are way too big for his hands. Dark eyes, short, black hair, and round… glasses…

NO FUCKING WAY!

“YOU—HIM! OH MY GOD! NOOOO, NO-NO-NO-NO! NO! NO!” Ain’t no motherfucking way this bitch is who I think he is, this has to be a prank! It has to! For the sake of my sanity! Oh, but it isn't! It’s fucking real!

“...Salena? You doin’ okay?” The others looked concerned at my sudden and dramatic outlash. Fucking of course, Donnie and Mikey wouldn’t know! Jason still had the bag over his head when he was around them! Fuck, why didn’t I just take it off right there!?

“Jason! That asshole was who we saved from Meatsweats a few months ago!”

Raph and Leo looked just as lost as before. Mikey and Donnie, on the other hand, went pale with shock.

“That was you!?” Donnie’s staff pointed directly at the fucker. “Why didn’t you say anything!? I know you recognized my voice!” 

“I can’t believe Salena and I interrupted a perfectly nice day to save you of all folks! You ruined our lovely little ice cream date, dawg!”

“I was being kidnapped by a pig monster? Why would I reveal I’m a rival when you were the only help I had?”

“And yet, here you are, the very reason we’re stuck in this creepy facility, preventing you three from illegally accessing information and doing who knows what with it even though you now owe us one, YOU UNGRATEFUL MENACE!”

Before I could fix my brain enough to join in on justifiably shaming the idiot, I noticed Leo and Raph exchanging confused glances at each other.

“...What the hell is going on?”

“Raph don’t know.” They both looked at me for answers because the universe hates me.

I tearfully and shamefully explained the bullshit scenario we are now stuck in due to my impulsivity. “Donnie, Mikey, and I saved a guy from Meatsweats I think back in April? H-he had a bag over his head so they didn’t know what he looked like and I-I was the only one who saw him without it b-but I didn’t know he was part of the fucking Purple Dragons and—Fuck my life! My first ever save and it was a villain!?” The one time I actually did something useful…

God, there’s so much noise everywhere! Everyone’s arguing with each other or trying to get it to stop or whatever else is going on! My head hurts. Why did I even come here? I should’ve just went home. I should’ve stayed with Zane. I keep getting in the way, I keep making mistakes, I keep ruining things!

I have to keep my composure, though. I don’t wanna cry in a situation like this, not when I’ve already done enough harm.

“Wait a sec, where’s Jeremy?” 

We all paused, the realization clearing up as we heard a cheer from another room. “Yes! I got in! I got past the system!”

“Holy shit, he’s in the computer lab! Quick, we—” 

A bat hit Donnie straight on his stomach and knocked him back, Raph catching him so he wouldn’t fall to the floor. 

Kendra clicked her tongue as she laughed. “I gotta hand it to ya, you morons somehow turned off these stupid security systems. Definitely the most annoying part I’d have had to figure out; I guess that’s why I wanted ‘em, anyway. I don’t know how you did it but congrats! You’re not completely useless.” It looked more like she was addressing Donnie over any of us.

“But now?” She and Jason blocked the door. Her bat stood by her side. “Stay out of my fucking way.”

Obviously, that’s not happening, so chaos erupted instead. One would think a Two VS. Five would be pretty easy to handle… until they saw how well Kendra used her bat, that is. She’s faster than I expected, able to zip around before anyone could properly react. Definitely has a strong arm, too. Then, of course, there’s the traitor. Jason pushed his glasses up his nose bridge and took out his own set of weapons. Or should I say, whipped them out. ‘Cause they’re actually fucking whips. 

They were almost impossible to get by. Glowing in the dark room, buzzing from the static friction they made against each other. 

He targeted them towards Leo who barely managed to dodge just in time. Mikey, not being as lucky, got smacked right in the face.

“OW! Hey! Since when did he even have those!?” 

“Oh! Since last week, actually. I made them using—”

Either the bitch has good hearing or I was too loud when my sickle swung at his head. “Are ya dense!? How are you still tryna maintain small-talk after literally betraying us!? You know what I looked like, you wouldn’t have even said anything if I didn’t call you out! You lied to me! I saved you and you lied!”

“AH! The hell, man!? You’re gonna kill me for that!?”

“No!” The sickles weren’t sharp, only a little solid. I know I gotta resist. Unfortunately. “Just knock you out for a bit, you scheming piece of shit!” 

I wish I could say I was making up for my several blunders tonight by at least being able to handle the living embodiment of a toothpick. My leg’s not super mangled up but, surprise-surprise, it’s hard to move at my fastest and dodge with it still being injured. He’s a little impressively good with those whips, too. It’s hard keeping track of where they both are at all times, the difficulty only increased by how quick he’s able to use them considering he’s only trained for a week. I’m trying my damn best with what I can.

“Oh my god, give it up with the guilt-tripping! I’m not gonna turn on my sister just ‘cause you saved me once!”

“Hell no! I risked turning into mutant-munchies for you—Hol’ up a sec.” The pure blasphemy that came out of his mouth shocked me so bad, I actually had to pause. “Kendra’s your sister? Ew, what’s that like?”

Yet another mistake on my part. One of the whips wrapped around my sickle to fling it and I—determined to not lose them again—got shot through the air along with it. 

At this rate, I’ll be free-bird flying and crashing to the floor every five minutes. I don’t even feel like getting up anymore. Fuck, I don’t usually feel pain so easily.

Hm?

The battle ground’s a little chaotic so it’s hard to follow when in the middle of it. But, now that I’m seeing it from a distance, everyone’s intentions are suddenly ten times clearer. Kendra’s hovering towards a specific direction, dancing around the door to where Jeremy is. Jason’s distracting everyone and keeping them from paying attention to her. I have a feeling that’s very much so on purpose.

She’s starting to go in. I guess it doesn’t matter whether or not I want to, I gotta get up now. I closed my eyes and with whatever strength I had, used my sickles to turn invisible and go after her. 

I snuck by Kendra and entered the lab. Jeremy was glued to the computer, staring at a loading screen. On the side of the PC was a USB stuck to the port. Of course, accidentally saving the villain wasn’t enough! They had to use the same shitty USB we went back for, too.

“Jeremy, status report!”

“It’s almost done downloading the files! Just a few more seconds and… We got it!”

“Nice work! Quick! Toss ‘em over!”

Oh boy, if Kendra’s able to gain the instructions for those freaky arms, who knows what she’ll make with it! I can’t let them get access to anything here!

 Thus, following my usual rule of acting-without-thinking, I threw a sickle at the USB. I don’t know if it was my panic or my rage that caused it to be so sharp but it cut the USB in half mid-air and smashed straight into one of the PCs. My punishment for resorting to such destructively impulsive solutions was being greeted by the lovely melody of security sirens going off for breaking their important tech.

“No! My USB! There was so much stuff in that! Fuck!” She is so seriously distraught over the wrong thing. 

Upon retrieving my sickle, I hadn’t realized I was flickering in and out of visibility till Kendra’s bat nearly made contact with my head. “You little skeeze! Do you have any idea how much of my progress you destroyed!” 

“But that’s mine and Jason’s progress—“

“SHUT UP!” She snapped her head back to bark at him and I took my moment of escape, knocking her down out of my way. Still, she kept up by yanking at my leg and pulling me down with her, severely getting on my nerves by now.

So, I kicked her in the face.

She stayed there, groaning in pain, while her sidekick buddy checked on her. Sure, I could’ve kicked a little softer but I think a bloody nose is merciful enough for her. 

I returned to the lobby, greeted by chaos more hectic than before. The alarms and sirens were still blaring, red lights flashing on and off the entire facility. Our oh so beloved security arm friends returned in even greater numbers now! If I believed in superstition, I’d believe this night was cursed.

Jason’s looking a little overwhelmed now having to solo both the Teenage Mutant Mad Dogz and the newly emerged robot claws, yet he’s still not giving in and letting the guys go in peace. Speaking of them, they’re scattered all over the place, trying to keep themselves and each other from getting yoinked and flung like I was earlier. 

Donnie was the only one who managed to maneuver over to me.

“Salena!?” 

“Donnie! What’s going on!? Where’d the stupid arms come from!?”

“Well, I suppose it’d be impractical if they only had one source of their weird mystic high-tech robots, so there’s that.” He spun his tech-bō and whacked away the claw that was following him. “What happened in there? You disappeared and then we heard a loud crash from that room and suddenly everything got dialed up to eleven!”

“Uh, yeah, my fault, I uh—Eek!” Thank god for reflexes, the only thing that let me slice at a robot arm before it sliced me. “Good news is, I destroyed the USB they were using so Kendra can’t access the government’s whatever-the-fuck anymore! Bad news, I also accidentally destroyed one of their computers in the process, set off the security alarms, and now we’re here. Sorry, haha…” 

“You what!?”

“It was an accident, I swear! I really didn’t mean—”

“You annoying little twinkle-toes!” Kendra charged at us from behind and her bat swung directly at me. Thankfully, Donnie blocked it from knocking me dead and sent Kendra back a few steps. 

“You know what? If you got Kendra this mad, then you’re forgiven for everything on my terms! Let’s go!” He grabbed my wrist and dragged us away from the bat-wielding maniac.

Though, I’m not sure whether a metal bat or metal claws are worse. A bunch of them charged towards me now that I got back within their sight. 

“Move!” He shoved me out of the way of the monster claws.

I slid on the ground, actually keeping my balance this time, and swung at another claw coming from my right. Without having a moment to breathe, I ducked and slashed at one right above me. I would’ve missed the one coming from behind me, had Raph not been there and created a mystic shield. There’s so many all around the flat and it seems I’m still their favorite toy. 

“Salena, try hidin’ somewhere!” He punched one of the claws straight on, the impact causing a loud clunk. “They keep coming after you!” 

“I can’t! They saw me even when I turned invisible, they probably have a different type of vision or something!” 

“Infrared vision, genius!” Kendra’s bat got caught by my sickle. She aimed for my torso this time, I’m surprised it wasn’t back at my head. “They were built with thermal sensors! Which I would’ve been able to shut off if somebody didn’t break the computers!”

“God, were you built to get on people’s nerves!?” 

I’ve just about had it with her bullshit, reflected in my blades turning sharp enough to slice her bat in half. I elbowed her in the stomach and took the chance to roll over to a new spot. The closest I can get to hiding is continuously moving, staying in one place meant getting hoarded.

Mikey grumbled nearby, his nunchucks spinning in his hands. “Man, they’re too much! We gotta go! Leo?”

“A bit busy!” Busy was right, he’s cutting down a good number of the plastic pains with his katanas. There’s no good opportunity to use them as an escape portal, let alone any safe ones.

Beep! Beep!

Donnie raised his gauntlet up and flashed what I assume to be the building’s security cameras he hacked into. “Oh, no, no, no, guys! They’re sending actual human officers up now! What do we do!?”

Everyone’s panicked, shit’s fucked to the brim, and the constant beeps and shrieks are only making it harder to think! Kendra’s yelling about her bat, Mikey’s chosen to deal with the Purple Disasters while they’re bickering away, Raph’s boxing the claws and shielding Donnie, who’s frantically typing at his wristwatch to hack the security, and Leo’s… Screaming and getting flung. Sweet, we’ve matched now.

I ran over to Leo, guarding him from the arms trying to take advantage of the situation. “So, how’d you like your first flight?”

“I’d prefer it more if I was actually expecting it.” He got up almost as fast as he crashed down, not wasting a single second to getting back in the fight. “Ugh, I gotta get us out of here, but I need an opening!”

“Want me to try clearing something out?”

“You got any plans on how—Shit, get back!” His arm pushed me back behind him to avoid getting hit. 

The white tails of my ribbon flew forward, slightly blocking my vision. I looked straight ahead, past the death machines and battle-ground chaos, and saw the glass windows showcasing the brightly-lit city night.

The ribbon…

…Bingo.

“I actually might.” I tugged at the silk tails and felt my hair flow down as it got undone. “Just trust me and get everyone out at the first opportunity you get!”

“Wait, what are you—”

I dashed past him before he could ask any questions, no real time for them now. My multitasking skills were given the ultimate test as I focused on darting across the room, intentionally getting the arms to gather and chase after me, while tying the ribbon to the handles of my sickles and connecting them together. 

In the corner of my eye, I saw Mikey had managed to take out Kendra and her sidekicks. Don’t even gotta worry about them now, it’s going better than I thought! There was pounding at the door. Seems Donnie locked the officers out for now, but I doubt it’ll be long till they find a way to break in by force. Gotta move fast. This plan could fail horrifically, but it’s the best shot we’ve got!

With all the security arms focused on me now, the boys had a clear opening to leave. I sprinted to the windows, wound back my sickles, and broke the glass with a single throw. 

Now or never!

“HOT SOUP!!!” 

And out the window I went.

The air felt amazing, rushing by my skin as I let gravity take over the fall. I turned myself over, now looking up at the sky. The arms were shooting out the windows, unable to reach down any further to get me. A flash of blue from the inside indicated everyone was out safely. That’s my cue to prevent myself from dying now!

I held onto one of my sickles and swung the other one up. My spine tingled as a pink aura washed over my hand and over the sickle that I grabbed, trailing its way up the white silk ribbon…

Transforming it to chains!?

The pure white mystic chain clanked as it stretched out. The sickle I threw up now broke through the glass side of the building and continued shattering through it straight down. A few broken shards chipped at me as I snapped back to reality and remembered the original plan. I closed my eyes and refocused on the sickles. No thoughts, no distractions, no room for any of them. I have to breathe. I have to focus. 

The blades morphed them into a stiff rubber. Too soft to break the glass, too strong to break itself in half, effectively yanking me to a stop. 

I did it.

I actually fucking did it!

“Holy truffle mac and cheese, that was awesome!”

“I know!” I excitedly greeted Donnie who had flown over using his jet pack. “I can’t believe it went so well! You saw it all?”

“And recorded!” He turned his back towards me and pointed at his shell. “Need a ride?” 

“Definitely.” 

We cruised across the sky onto the roof of a nearby building where the rest of the guys were. The instant I hopped off Donnie’s shell, Leo jumped me with a hug, followed by several frantic checks to make sure all limbs were intact.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Are you dizzy? What’s wrong with you? You’re crazy! You’re crazy, you know that!?”

“Now who’s smothering them?” Mikey snickered at Leo, who looked relieved and on the verge of tears at the same time. 

“Everyone shut up and look at this video first! You’ll probably forget whatever meaningless chitchat you were having, anyway!” Donnie hissed from glee, using his extra mechanical limbs to huddle us all around his phone that was playing the video of me from a few moments ago. 

Looking at the footage now, it seemed the pink aura actually came from my whole body. It spread throughout my arms and circled past my hands, flowing to the white ribbon and replacing them with shimmering, white chains. 

Mikey screamed from excitement, holding onto my hands. “MYSTIC CHAINS! Omigosh, we match now! We’re like twins!” 

“I know! Isn’t it great!? We can be chain buddies—Eh, nevermind, that doesn’t sound right.” 

We sat around for a while so Leo could help with all the cuts and microscopic bits of glass stuck to me. In the meantime, they were all curious how the chains even came to be, which I sadly didn’t have a clear answer for. I went ahead and reassured them my plan would’ve still worked with the ribbon itself, though. Speaking of, I can’t really get my ribbon back now. Sorry, Mi. However, I did figure out how to make the chains vanish and re-materialize, so at least I don’t have to learn a different fighting style! 

Donnie was paying attention, I think. Just multitasking with a few holographic monitors up. He sighed and put ‘em away after a while.

“Yeah, no, sorry guys. Maybe my brain’s too fuzzy but I can’t hack into the actual database tonight.”

“No big deal, Don. Ya done enough.” Raph gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. “Hey, you guys wanna go grab some pizza? Raph could use a break.”

“Yeah, I think we all could.” Hopeful, green eyes faced towards me. “Salena? It’s late but… You wanna join us for a bit?”

It’s around 3am now. If I went home now, I’d only get three hours of sleep and that’s assuming I’ll conk out immediately. It’s not impossible, though, I can feel the energy crash creeping up from all the adrenaline. But, I don’t know. I don’t wanna go yet. 

“I’m already out, aren’t I? Might as well!” 

Turns out, for once tonight, I made the right choice. It was fun getting to be with them in a more casual manner. Just chilling at a park, enjoying some pizza, and re-energizing myself as I watched them goof around. I checked through my phone while I enjoyed the delicious cheesy glory.

Everything seemed normal.

Except for one tiny issue.

I was putting it off but Zane sent a voice note to me a few hours ago. I don’t have earbuds but everyone’s pretty distracted right now, anyway. I could listen to it. Maybe it’s… Maybe it’s better than I think it is. 

I lowered the volume just to have it barely audible and clicked play.

“Hey. Um… I hope you’re home and safe now. I…” He sighed and went silent for a while. 

“This wasn’t how I intended tonight to be. It was such a gorgeous night. The weather was perfect. Everything was perfect. It was all going so well. What happened? Why do we always end up like this?”

I wish I knew. Or that he knew. Maybe we could’ve helped each other if just one of us knew what was the problem.

“Everything in my life always goes so wrong. I’m so tired of it, Salena. You’re the only thing I haven’t messed up. I don’t want to mess this up. I just—” I could hear a creek from the door opening as someone came in the room. “Yeah, it’s on the floor, clean it up. I don’t know how, just go clean it!”

Sounds of glass being swept up filled the background atmosphere. Zane sighed again. “Sorry. One of my vases broke tonight. The cherry on top, right? Anyway, uh… I’ll just end it here. I hope you’re okay. I hope you’re dreaming of something nice. And I’m… I’m sorry.”

The voice note ended. It wasn’t that bad, I guess. I feel a little bad about earlier but I’m glad he apologized. I guess things are fine now. I should probably leave a text, it’d be wrong to hold a grudge if the situation’s already resolved. 

You: hey i’m safe yea. I just wanna say i’m sorry too for lashing out like that earlier. I hope you’re sleeping well, sweet dreams and see ya tomorrow <3

There we go. Nothing to worry about now. Nothing to stress over.

A hand tapped at my shoulder. I raised my head to meet Mikey smiling down at me. “Mind if I sit? They’re bein’ a little loco even for my taste right now.”

I looked straight and saw Leo and Donnie arguing over whether pineapple belongs on pizza and Raph taking the opportunity to sneakily eat their slices. Pretty tame behavior from them, but Mikey’s tone was too lighthearted to be serious, anyway. 

I shifted over on the bench and patted the empty space next to me. He sat down and brought his knees to his chest, his back leaning against my side. He shuffled with his phone for a bit before offering me one of his earbuds. “Wanna listen to Fall Out Boy with me?”

“Sure!” 

I could use some music after tonight.

Next Chapter

This chapter was nearly 15K words btw-

[the-tmnt-ficfinder]

Ficfinder finds: Turning Purple

Rottmnt Fanfic Summary: After the Krang’s attempted invasion, Donnie starts to experience some… adverse side effects from connecting to the Technodrome. This is very loosely inspired by somerandomdudelmao’s apocalyptic series on tumblr. Warnings for this fic!!! As mentioned in the tags, cancer is a big theme here. Also medical procedures, and needles. There will be lots of depressing moments, but I try to balance it out with some wholesome fluff... ya know, eventually.

Turning Purple: Appraisal and Ratings

(Don't know what fanfic "Appraisal and Ratings" means? Check out my explanation on my Main Masterpost! Looking for a different fanfic to read? Head on over to my Fanfic List Masterpost!)

Disclaimer: This fanfic is unfinished, so this post will continue to update as the fic updates. This fanfic is written by @lizaaardstuff, so go show them some love and support!!

The fanfic ratings are not based on quality, favoritism, or how good I think it is, but rather, how intense a subject may be. Like a movie review, or the tags on Ao3, letting the readers know what to expect.

Plot: 💛💛💛🖤🖤

"Plot is three out of five!! The plot for this story is riveting, and dramatic! It starts out very Donnie centric, then as the plot progresses, the rest of the group gets pulled into the story. As the fic updates, I'll updates this, as we're only 1/3 into the story!"

Suspense/Mystery: 💛💛💛🖤🖤

"Suspense/Mystery is three out of five!! The suspense is pretty intense, especially concerning Donnie's condition, which you figure out about almost right away. But seriously, the suspense!!!"

Angst/Hurt: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Angst/Hurt is five out of five!! This fanfic is filled with so much hurt and angst!! Augh, it hurt my soul!! Poor Donnie, poor Hamato boy's poor everyone!!"

Fluff/Comfort: 💛💛🖤🖤🖤

"Fluff/Comfort is two out of five!! While there is fluff and comfort in this fanfic, there is so much angst, that the comfort isn't as frequent."

Emotions Conveyed: 💛💛💛💛🖤

"Emotions Conveyed is four out of five!! This fic messed with my mind for sure!! Seriously, it covers some pretty serious topics, and it definitely messed with my head. This fic has a very strong sense of loneliness, and helplessness."

Drama/Tension Level: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Drama/Tension Level is five out of five!! The drama and tension this fic contains is crazy!! High levels of stress as well. The drama is dramaing, especially since its medical drama."

Triggers: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Triggers are five out of five!! This fanfic is very trigger heavy, especially if you're sensitive to subjects like cancer, and medical settings."

Legibility (Reading): 💛💛💛💛💛

"Legibility (Reading) is five out of five!! Turning Purple is a very enjoyable fic to read indeed!! Its written well, the writing style is smooth, its all in all, great to read!!"

Legibility (Audio): 💛💛💛💛💛

"Legibility (Audio) is five out of five!! Along with being enjoyable to read, Turning Purple is also incredibly enjoyable to listen to! Would recommend!!"

Length: 💛💛💛🖤🖤

"Length is three out of five!! Turning Purple is set to have 35 chapters, though that may end up changing as the story progresses. ^^”

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Turning Purple: Chapter List

(Chapters will be added as I rate and appraise them ^^)

(Yet to be added)

[copwef]

Three questions about ROTTMNT

(These are questions I've had for a while. I mean no offense I'm just confused)

Why does everyone dipict future Leo as not having access to his mystic powers? There's nothing wrong with it but in the scrapped opening scene for the movie we see that future Leo still has access to his mystic Powers and he is show using them. The excuse that krang took them doesn't work because Mikey has his and we never hear about how or why Leo wouldn't have his. Was this officially explained?

When the turtles unlock their nimpo in the s2 finale they take on the appearance that they they are show to have in the movie. The colored part of their designs are changed to black except for the masks(I like to call it their mystic designs). However in the final shot in the show where leo is made the leader they are shown to have gone back to the designs they had before unlocking their powers. So why do the turtles appear back in their mystic designs in the movie when they are shown to gone back to original designs in the s2 finale?

Why does no one talk about or reference Splinter's mystic abilities. In the season 2 finale splinter unlocks his nimpo. So why doesn't he use it in the movie? Also does April still have her nimpo or did she loose access to it when Kari left her body?

(Splinter's mystic design)

Could someone please explain these discrepancys to me.

(Also I'm aware how dirty the creators were done when it comes to the movie. I'm looking for in universe explanations.)

[rottmnt-honeybea]

Text under cut because it's a lot

1) I've had an influx of followers across all my platforms, so I wanted to update some character/story information.

2) This is Q.B.* Or Bea, my Rottmnt OC. A LOT of my videos will be about her.

3) She was a human, gifted in math and science, that was mutated into a Bee Mutant when Draxum's oozesquitoes were let loose in New York. She has three younger siblings: Miguel (12), and twins Lina and Rita (6). She's first generation Portuguese-American and the oldest daughter so you know she's got that ✨special trauma✨.

4) This is Roxo we love Roxo here. As a mutant she develops UV/Mystic sight (the ability to see UV light and Mystic signatures), Chlorokinesis (the ability to manipulate plants), and the ability to fly. She also created Roxo, the man-eating guard plant, who used to protect her garden and provide companionship to her until Bullhop killed him.

5) Donnie builds her a weapon they call Stinger, which is essentially a sword with a chain. Raph tries to teach Bea how to fight and defend herself, but she's very easily angered and relies on that a lot to power through a fight. And in Season 2 Bea becomes Draxum's student. Stinger does not make sense if you thing about it in the real world. It's a kids show, use your imagination.

6) Bea's story goes through four Major acrs and two Minor arcs. Major: Mutated, Missing Roxo, Student, Post-Shredder. Minor: Human Again, Battle Nexus Champion.

7) in "Doomed", my rottmnt Bad Future AU Donnie and Bea are partners. Donnie does tech engineering to give the Resistance weapons and Bea does Security. They've got two kids: Shelldon (upgraded to a full bodyH and Gemini.

8) Shelldon aids in security and has a number of weapons built into his body. Gemini is part of a Scavenger team with Casey and wields her father's mystic halberd-flail staff).

9) these 9 are bg characters/friends of Casey, Gemini, and Shelldon. The story will follow Bea, Donnie, the Hamato's, and the Mad Dogs as they navigate the early years of the apocalypse, then move onto the next generation of Hamato's, before eventually leading up to the events of the Rise movie. This is not a lighthearted fic/take on the Rise universe as it includes: body trauma (loss of eyes, arms, and legs), death, homophobia, self harm, and suicide. BUT it is currently being rewritten.

10) The Bea-Verse is just me sticking Q.B. Into other tmnt stories. Namely 1987, 2003, Bayverse, 2012, Rise, and Mutant Mayhem. And just like how the stories of the turtles, Splinter, April, and Casey all change—Q.B. goes through all those changes with them too.

*I completely forgot to say that the Q in Q.B. stands for Quinn. So her full name, for those unaware, is Quinn Bea Santos.