#then it cuts to draxum just standing there and then collapsing in pain screaming

[bettertwin1]

Have you considered uhhhh transferring it to your enemies?/j

I have no enemies

[remmushound]

Bay/rise 48!! @errorfreak88 @brightlotusmoon @digitl-art-monstr @dakotafinely @selfindulgenz @yarchurr @sprinklestheditty @sententiously-sarcastic

Something was happening. Shredder pulled away from the door with a loud growl but not of anger. It almost sounded as if he was in pain. His hands went up to clutch at his head, his claws curling under his chin and cupping his head in an almost careful cradle. When that didn't help to sooth him, he started to thrash his head with an angry roar, spitting foam and what looked almost like tar as he slammed his full weight against the containment.

The container hardly moved, but Shredder was insistent. He kept rocking and slamming and spinning in circles like he was rabid.

“Uh dudes— is he okay?” Mikey backed away from the container and ran to hide behind Raph, his eyes wide as he watched the struggling yokai.

“What on earth…” Leo narrowed his eyes, his mouth hanging open like a startled frog.

“Not on this earth.” Donnie commented; he had been waiting for so long to say that.

“Donnie!” Leonardo ran to his brother's side, grabbing Donatello and tossing him back to where Krang’s destroyed body suit rested. “Let him out!”

“Are you crazy?” Donnie and Raph cried as one, then immediately glared at each other for copying.

“A little.” Leonardo answered.

Donatello didn't question Leonardo’s order, immediately working to try and free the panicking creature from his trap.

“What are you doing—?! Don’t let him go!” Leo tried to reason.

“Please!” Leonardo ran over to address Leo, taking the massive hands in his. “Trust me!”

Leo stared back at him. For a moment, neither of them moved. Then Leo turned back to his brothers with the slightest nod.

“Let him try.”

“What— but Leo!” Donnie tried to argue. “We just caught him; we can’t let him out!”

“It’s his brother in there, Donnie! He gets to call it.”

The doors hissed open. Shredder stumbled out the doors the minute they were wide enough for him to fit through, and though the bigger brothers immediately braced themselves for what they saw as an inevitable attack, Shredder stopped the minute he got into open ground and could collapse in on himself, the black-as-ink substance leaking from every part of him and spilling out into the technodrome.

Mikey looked down and found it pooling around his feet, immediately pulling away and trying to kick himself free, though it stuck with him stubbornly. “EW! I stepped in Shredder goo!”

Shredder clawed at his eyes and mouth, his own claws leaving deep gashes in the armor that only served to spill more of him out of it.

“What is this stuff?” Michelangelo whimpered as he climbed on top of Draxum to get away from the spill.

“It’s the Oni magic…” Draxum said. He looked back up at Shredder. “He’s dying.”

“What’s gonna happen?” Donatello asked.

“I don’t know…”

With a final, piercing cry of a creature's final breath, Shredder screamed to the sky and then collapsed. The minute he crashed, his armor split and fell apart, leaving Raphael in the middle of the pile. A second of stunned silence passed before the armor started to drift up, one piece at a time, and fate away into nothing. No— it took Leonardo a second to realize— not nothing. It turned into something new.

From each armor was birthed a cloud of pink petals carried on a wind no one else could feel. Raphael flipped over to witness the event as it unfolded, and for a second he was almost certain the petals shifted into a human figure staring down at him. The phantom was gone the next second, drifting away in the breeze and following the rest of the petals through an air duct and out to God-knows-where.

“Wow.” Mikey looked down at his now-clean foot, then back up to where the pedals disappeared. For a second, he had been sure he felt the tickle of someone there— someone free from a massive weight that had bore down on them. He was certain he must have felt it, and then he was certain he had simply made a mistake because he didn't feel it again. “Well, that was unexpected.”

“The hell happened?” Raph growled.

“I… guess we won?” Donnie offered with a shrug.

“He left.” Michelangelo said softly.

“RAPH!” Leonardo was the first to run to Raphael, wrapping the snappers head in his and hugging the massive weight against his plastron. Raphael gave a startled yelp, but then fell to laughter at Leonardo’s slick and almost slimy touch. He grunted twice more when he felt the soft and leathery Donatello wrap his arms around Raphael’s carapace, careful of the bandages that were quickly coming unwrapped, and as he felt the rough and thick skin of Michelangelo as the box turtle hugged his side. Then the soft and squishy touch of April came as she wiggled her way under Leonardo to hug Raphael’s belly, and lastly the sharp prickle of Yoshi’s bristly fur as the rat took his sons hand and hugged it tightly.

It took Raphael a second to react, but when he did it was to stand up, carrying every member of his family either in his arms or on his shell, and hug them with all the force of a friendly grizzly bear. He nuzzled each of them in turn and when he got to Yoshi his tears were wiped, but they proved to be flowing too heavy and thick for Yoshi to stop the flow completely.

“There there… it is alright…” Yoshi reached up to plant a gentle kiss on Raphael’s cheek, which the rest of his family hurried to follow. “You are safe…”

“I… I…” Raphael shook his head as he tried to make the words come out, but all that happened was more tears and a weak whimper as he buried his face once more in the shelter of his brother’s chest.

“It’s alright, big guy!” Leonardo tried to comfort, “Seriously, if you keep crying anymore, we’re gonna drown!”

Donatello gave a sigh and pulled a tiny cocktail umbrella from his tool belt, holding it above his head to block himself from Raphael’s tears. Michelangelo kept nuzzling his beak and cheek into Raphael’s hardened biceps, while April just held on tight for dear life refusing to let go.

Draxum cleared his throat from behind them, and when they turned, they were faced with Draxum holding two sets of weapons. Two Tonfa and a kusari-fundo. Michelangelo gasped and ran to Draxum, taking the weapons from him with a happy squeal.

“Our weapons!” Michelangelo hugged Draxum tightly, burying his face in the boneplates of Draxum’s chest. “Thank you Draxum...”

He hugged Draxum a moment more before running off and returning to his brothers, giving Raphael his Tonfa back and earning another hug.

“Master Draxum?” Cassandra asked softly, finally removing her hood and mask.

“Yes, Cassandra.”

“I don’t understand...” she said softly, “are we friends with the turtles now...?”

Draxum looked back at her most curiously. “Do you want to be?”

Cassandra looked to the reunited clan. They were hugging each other and kissing and they seemed so happy to be back together! Cassandra thought it over for a short moment in her mind.

“Yeah... I think I do.”

“H… how long was I out?” Raphael asked. It couldn’t have been for too long— his brothers looked unchanged— and they were still in the technodrome…

“Just a few hours! No biggie!” Leonardo laughed, putting his hands on his hips after giving Raphael a final pat on the head.

“A f… few hours?” Raphael whimpered, “It felt a lot longer than that… it felt like…” Raphael looked down at his hands. They were shaking and though he put conscious effort into trying to stop them, they only started shaking worse.

“Hey, hey…” Leonardo put a hand on Raphael’s shoulder and squeezed him to bring him back to reality before falling into another tight hug. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters…”

“B… but… but how… who… how did you…?”

“It was Leo’s plan.” Donatello said, “You know Leo’s always been good at that kinda thing.”

“Leo… led you guys?”

“I wouldn’t really say led.” Leonardo motioned vaguely, “More like… uh… well, yeah, lef I guess is… the word.”

“Oh…” Raphael frowned and hung his head.

“Hey…” April gave Raphael a pat on the back, “Let’s get you back to the lair, big guy. Let the doc’s check you up.”

“Right…” Raphael got to his feet and almost immediately Donnie descended upon him, flicking down his goggles to read Raphael’s vitals.

“How strange. From what I could see, the armor locked into you with Shredder— I was expecting some fractures, gashes, cuts, something, but… now you don’t seem hurt at all. Actually, you look almost better than you did when you went in!”

“Yeah! How come he’s not all withered and old like Draxum was?” Michelangelo pouted.

“He’s a mutant, Michelangelo. And he has hamato blood. I have neither of those things.” Draxum answered. “It was foolish of me to think I could wear the armor in the first place…”

Leonardo didn't immediately follow his brothers, and neither did Leo. Both spent the longest time just watching their families walk away.

The bay brothers were in the back, straying a little behind the hyper, younger brothers to watch curiously as they went by before following.

“You sooooo have to teach us how to do that glowy thing when we get home!” Michelangelo cheeped from beside Raphael.

“Er. Glowy thing?”

“You know— how you broke through Draxum’s vines! And your chest was all glowy...?”

Raphael held a hand to his chest with a soft whine. “I don’t remember any of that...”

“You sure you don’t wanna scounge for some tech-whatever?” Raph asked Donnie, “I mean—ain’t like Krang’s gonna need it anymore."

“Quite frankly, Raphael, I would be happy if I never see this place ever again.” Donnie answered.

“Speak for yourself…” Donatello gave an evil grin as he rested his head on his bundle of stolen tech, wrapped up in the black suit he was once wearing.

“When did you have time to get that?” Michelangelo asked, his eyes going wide.

“Othello Vohn Ryan makes time!”

Raph laughed and shook his head at Donatello’s antics. He tried to lean over to give Mikey a hug.

Mikey flinched away quickly, his eyes going wide a moment while Raph eyed him with a slight tilt of his head. Mikey gulped. His chest started to feel tight again and he looked to Michelangelo for encouragement. Michelangelo was already looking back at him and gave an urging smile and nod that made Mikey take a deep breath and stop to address Raph.

“I… don’t really want a hug right now. Turtle power…?” Mikey smiled and held out his fist to Raph, his eyes almost pleading.

Raph was still at first, but then gave a jovial laugh and met the fist bump eagerly. “Turtle power!”

Leonardo jogged over to be with Leo. “Wanna talk?”

“Was it that obvious” Leo gave a weak laugh.

“Eh. I can just read people well.” Leonardo smiled and nudged Leo in the side.

Leo moved away from the touch with a slight scowl but made no comment on it.

“What you wanna talk about avocado head?”

Leo narrowed his eyes, but once more bit back a retort. “I wanted to apologize.”

“What for?”

Leo blinked, and for a moment he stuttered before he was able to speak more clearly. “I apologize for the way I have acted against you and your brother. Agitating you and… and yelling and… you still saved my family just now. Sorry— I’m not good at apologies.”

Leonardo laughed and gently bumped his fist against Leo’s shoulder. “Hey, no problem! Thanks for apologizing though. When we get home, I can tooooootally deck us out with food and drink of choice.”

“You’re… not mad?”

“Life is too short to hold grudges. No bad blood, right hermano?” Leonardo smiled and held out a hand to his counterpart.

Leo stared at Leonardo for the longest time before a smile finally crept its way into his face and he met the fist bump readily.

“No bad blood.”

"But I will hold this against you in any future arguments, FYI." Leonardo winked, "I never miss an opportunity to diss someone on past mistakes!"

Leo laughed and shoved his counterpart away from him, but Leonardo bounced right back and tried to slam his full weight into Leo to push him back, to no result.

"Hey! That's no fair!"

"Life ain't fair, Nardo!" Leo said, "Get used to it!"