#carapace and plastron would be quick to knock out as well

[sinestrosmind]

behold the plots for my biggest ref sheet yet

and of course it's Flame lmao

[remmushound]

Bay/rise 39!! @errorfreak88 @yarchurr @digitl-art-monstr @brightlotusmoon @sprinklestheditty @dakotafinely @sententiously-sarcastic

Content warning!! Mentions of Violence, Blood, and mental/body trauma!!

It was just dumb luck that Krang happened to look up and see them. Eight turtles staring down at him, white eyes glowing as they looked more like ghosts than mutants. Almost as if some avenging spirits had come out of hiding to enact revenge on the ones that did them wrong in life. Following Krang’s gaze, both Cassandra and Draxum looked upward as well.

“Complete the ceremony.” Draxum whispered to Cassandra before turning his attention to the turtles. “VILE CREATURES! What gives you the right to step foot in the home of my Grand Oni?! You will suffer for this injustice!”

“GET THEM!” Krang hissed, and at the command Shredder gave a roar and charged. He jumped up against the wall, the force of his strike making the technodrone shake as his claws dug into the metal.

“Master Krang!” Draxum pleaded quite suddenly, “You must keep Master Shredder in the circle for the ceremony to work! Please, great oni, let me handle the turtles!”

Krang watched him for a moment, and Draxum felt as if he might finally be called out for his treachery before Krang called Shredder to return. Shredder looked to Krang, and then jumped off the walls of the technodrone and landed right where Krang had commanded him to. Draxum smiled and finally stood to face the turtles. His thin vines shot out fast and tried to strike the brothers out of their hiding place.

***

Leonardo recognized what was happening almost immediately. Without a word to his companions, Leonardo jumped. His feet found holds on the whipping and swiping vines that carried him just as much as they tried to knock him over.

“LEO!” Raphael jumped after him, and under his bigger feet the vines grew thicker to support him. 

Michelangelo and Donatello were soon to follow, and Raph was more than ready to jump after them before Leo held out his arm to stop his brute of a brother.

“Can’t just sit here, Leo!” Raph growled.

“Just wait.” Leo whispered to his brother.

Leonardo reached the ground, and his brothers were right behind him. Raphael stood as equals with Leonardo, their other two brothers hanging slightly behind them. Leonardo flashed his odachi.

“Leo, what are you—“ Raphael went to say.

“Listen here, Draxum!” Leonardo declared loudly, “If you want my clan, then you’re gonna have to go through me!”

Draxum’s eyes widened just the slightest bit before he caught on, his vines wiping around him in a dangerous display of power as he played along. “Leonardo. Leading your brothers to die? How pathetic!”

“Leo…?” Raphael whispered softly.

“Just trust me, bro.” Leonardo said before quickly stepping up to stand before the full strength of Baron Draxum. “To get to my brothers, you’ll have to go through me first!”

“Very well…” Draxum narrowed his eyes. All at once, Draxum’s vines shot out at Leonardo.

With all the speed he could muster, Leonardo faced the attacks head-on in a charge. Weaving in and out and up and down and dodging the blows that were coming at him like they were actual attacks because they were! Baron Draxum never pulled his punches. When Leonardo got within danger-distance, Baron Draxum side stepped in a manner that Leonardo recognized immediately because he had just gone through the same thing with Leo! Maybe that spar had helped something after all...

Leonardo immediately knew what to do.

Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo charged to their brothers aid. Raphael’s eyes searched up at the glint of metal and he saw Krang first, and then the great monster beside him. Raphael’s blue eyes went wide, and then even wider as he pulled back and stopped his charge. He knew Shredder was going to be here, he had been warned of that, but now he was standing before the great beast that had shred through his carapace like it was paper. And he looked even bigger Raphael remembered him being. Raphael couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to!

Donatello stopped much the same. Imagining those claws coming down on him, breaking his brother in two. The sound of shattering bone rang in his ears and even though he knew it was only a memory, he had to look around to check on his brothers. To make sure they were whole! Michelangelo was the only one to continue his charge, his eyes screwed so tightly shut that no light could get through them. He didn't need to see to know where to go, he could feel it! And sure enough, his shoulder struck Cassandra hard and tossed her to the ground.

Leonardo did a flip, mostly just to show up, and made a portal on the ground on his way down. He made the exit portal a few feet above Draxum’s head. He used the force from his flip and fall and turned it into a stronger attack, flashing his odachi and preparing to slam it down hard on Draxum. The yokai’s ears gave the slightest twitch, and then he spun to face upward, balancing on one hoof as he grabbed one of his vines and it used it as a barrier to block Leonardo’s attack. Leonardo’s sword sank deep into the flesh of the vine, but Draxum still held strong, though sweating.

“I need to get the others out of here.” Leonardo said, “Can you help me?”

Draxum gave only the slightest grunt before tossing Leonardo carelessly. The slider landed hard but was quick to recover against the sting of his flesh and he scrambled to grab his disarmed sword. He grabbed it just in time for a large vine to come slamming down at him.

Raph was helpless as he watched, each passing second only serving to fuel him with even more anxious energy until he thought screw it! And he jumped from the platform without Leo’s command.

“Raph!” Donnie jumped after him, and then Mikey after Donnie. Leo, without much else of a choice, jumped with his brothers.

“RRRRR GET THEM!” Krang commanded, pointing at the brothers as they fell.

Shredder gave a furious roar and charged them like a cat, bounding effortlessly over the fighting below him as his eyes were locked on his target.

Raph’s ivy eyes went wide. “Oh… that’s guys a lot bigger than our Shredder. 

“STAY AWAY FROM MY SONS!” Splinter roared, struggling with all the might of his ten years of training. He started to gnaw at the vines that held him.

The eyes of Leonardo’s brothers, Cassandra, and Krang all followed Shredder’s movements, and Draxum saw his chance. He grabbed Leonardo quite forcefully around his plastron and spoke quickly.

“Portal now.”

He tossed Leonardo hard at the wall, but Leonardo cut his way to safety by the means of a portal before he could hit. Draxum charged after him, and the portal closed the second Draxum passed through.

Then they were somewhere cold and dark and, most importantly, alone.

“Where did you take us?” Draxum asked.

“Don’t ask me!” Leonardo said, “You said make a portal, I made a portal! It’s freezing in here…”

“We don’t have much time.” Draxum spoke urgently, “You have a plan, what is it?”

Leonardo went to answer but hesitated. “I have… a question.”

“Well then ask it!” Draxum spat.

“Hueso said you needed a sacrifice of Hamato blood to defeat Shredder.” Leonardo said quickly, “Does it have to be dad?”

“It must be Hamato!”

“I know that.” Leonardo put his hand to his chest and smile weakly, “But I am Hamato…”

***

The battle roared on upstairs. In Draxum’s absence, his vines disappeared, and Splinter dropped hard to the floor with a sickening crack. Leo hardly had time to process the heart-wrenching sound before Shredder was upon them, his claws flashing his fury at the invaders. With a quick-thought swipe of his bo, Donnie knocked all his brothers out of the way of the swipe and took the hit himself.

Leo prepared for Donnie to be shredded, but he wasn’t. Shredder swiped him like a cat with a mouse toy, pinning Donnie beneath the weight of his claw and lowering his head to look at the box turtle with a monstrous smile before wrapping his hand around the mutant and carrying him off. Leo swiped at Shredder’s feet trying to get him to drop Donnie, but Shredder delivered a simple, sharp kick to Leo that sent him flying far and hard. Shredder took his position back in the ceremony and waited.

In a flash of swords and vines, Leonardo and Draxum fell from high up in the technodrone. Draxum used his vine to soften their fall ever so slightly, the thorns slicing into him and Leonardo both and leaving long, jacked cuts across their flesh. Draxum landed on top of Leonardo, his hoof planted firmly on the slider's neck. 

“ENOUGH OF THIS!” Draxum summoned up what remained of his power into a final, all-out strike that sent his vines flying outward and striking all turtles who dared make a mockery of his ceremony. Michelangelo was shoved off of Cassandra, and Raphael and Donatello were tossed into the remaining Mikey and Raph. Then the vines all pulled back to form a solid wall around Krang and his prisoners, Draxum, Cassandra, and Leonardo. “The ceremony is almost complete.”

His words were directed in equal parts to Krang and Leonardo as Draxum stepped back to help Cassandra finish her work quickly. Krang finally stepped up, his patience quickly worn thin, and he armed his blasters to fire.

“You were interesting for a time, but it’s time for something far more entertaining.” Krang laughed, “What do you think, Draxum? Should I let my new pet take care of him?”

“Your pet’s savagery knows no bounds.” Draxum commented with a laugh, “He would tear and rip all that flesh and its pretty patterns! Surely you’d want it more preserved if you plan to showcase him.”

“Fair point…” Krang smiled evilly. 

***

“NO!” The roar of both Raph’s sounded out.

Raphael charged the vines with all his force and tried to slam into them to no luck. He took his sai and both he and Raph tried to slash and cut at the ever-thickening wall. For a moment, Leo was stuck in his own shock and horror, still near the crevice his shell made upon his impact, before he recovered and charged to join. Each slash his katana landed was more quickly mended, but he didn't stop. Mikey and Michelangelo and Donatello all joined in as well, trying to hack and slash and cut away at the vines to get to their brothers.

Raphael was the first to back up. His eyes were like a sea, the shoreline receding in on itself to foretell of a tsunami about to break free. He knew something was up with Leonardo the minute they got there, and now that there was a wall between them and Leonardo was alone in that place with Draxum and Shredder and Krang, the cold truth smacked Raphael worse than any of the blows Shredder could ever deal to him. The tsunami spilled out of his eyes in the form of a torrent of tears and his sobs were like the howl of the storming winds the nature disaster would bring with it. He was the leader, it should be him in there, and if he had his mystic weapons, he could have just busted through those walls! He looked down at the bloody mess of his hands, torn open by the thorns he hardly noticed as he had punched the walls. His Hamato blood flowed out of the wounds and dripped down his knuckles. The faintest sound the drops made when they plopped on the ground were like the sharpest thunder in Raphael’s mind. Then he made two tight fists as the true tsunami made itself known.

He didn't need his tonfa! He was strong with them, sure, but he was just as strong without them! He had survived Shredder without his tonfa, and he had survived fourteen years of his life without the need for them! He didn't need them, but Leonardo needed him. Raphael felt a burning in his chest and at the base of his spine, and this time when his eyes turned white, he was still in control. His tears flowed just as openly as ever, but his lips betrayed them by pulling back in a roar that seemed to shake the very foundation of the structure at his feet. 

Eyes focused. Elbows locked. Stance low. 

***

“Before I preserve you, I have a show I’d like you to see.” Krang motioned to Cassandra as she eagerly held a blade to Yoshi’s neck, waiting for her cue to slice it.

“Is it Land Before Time? Because those movies? Awesome!” Leonardo risked a few steps forward. He tensed his muscles and grabbed at his wounds to try and make the blood flow from himself faster.

“You’re very obnoxious. It’s obvious your father taught you no manners. So, allow me to be you teacher.”

“You mean I have to stare at your bubblegum-looking self for eight hours Monday through Friday? No thanks!”

“Laugh while you can, little turtle…” Krang went to give the motion for Cassandra to carry through with the ceremony, but at that moment he stopped for some reason, and he looked at Leonardo. No, he looked behind Leonardo.

Leonardo turned in time to see the vines bust open and reveal a furious, almost floating Raphael. His feet just barely graded the ground, his chest emblazoned red with the Hamato Clan sigil, and his eyes glowing like white fire. The vines continued to try and tug and pull at him, resealing themselves behind him. He pulled the vines right back, snapping them in both his hands and his teeth.

“Woah…” Donnie gulped from where he was still in Shredder’s hand, trapped by the force of the great beast.

Raphael stood facing Krang for one long moment before charging. Krang charged up his blasters in preparation to meet Raphael in battle.

“RAPH NO!”

Then Raphael did the strangest thing yet. He stopped his charge, his eyes still locked on Krang though with no intent to attack him. Leonardo could see that now. Raphael slammed his fist down hard into the stone, his blood leaking out into the ceremonial markings and staining them red.

[brightlotusmoon]

A little more Spirit And Oxygen

Here’s another sneak peak at my TMNT fic, “Spirit And Oxygen: Across The Universe” which is part of my “Mikey The Lifegiver” fic series. It chronicles Mikey’s adventures in major depression, brain damage, and being the actual heart and soul and light of the team. http://archiveofourown.org/series/599863 This will probably be the final story, which means it might as well be a chapter fic, which means that this is officially Chapter One. Yes. I feel good about this. Stuff that is my heacanon here:  1) Shinigami is in a polyamorous relationship with Karai and Michelangelo, and the ladies have their own bedroom in the lair. 2) Raph has taken a shine to Shini and her attitudes on life and is so proud his little brother has such an awesome loveperson who is also banging his awesome sister. 3) April has finally decided to try dating both Donnie and Casey, although she’s spent more time with Don, and Casey doesn’t mind. 4) Splinter and Shredder are dead. Shredder killed Splinter and then the boys teamed up with Karai to kill Shredder, and Leo decapitated Shredder after Karai punched Shredder in the heart after Mikey knocked out Shredder with a kick to the face. Shredder’s henchmen have teamed up with Purple Dragons and other gangs, and have recreated robot Foot ninjas. Splinter appears as a spirit to the Hamato family. 5) The Mighty Mutanimals are very involved in the turtles’ lives. Mondo has learned first aid from Dr Rockwell and engineering from Don. 6) Leo and Karai have been duel sensei-ing and still argue over who gets to be Actual Sensei. 7) Abandoned military bases are turned into hide-outs for the more vicious, feral, and angry mutants in every borough. Mikey, Mondo, and Shini like to try and find them to befriend the tamer, friendlier ones. Karai and Raph wind up getting angry out of love and fear. 8) Mikey is Donnie’s assistant in the lab and is a field medic who uses his emotional empathic reach to comfort the injured; he can be telepathic when he tries hard, but it gives him migraines. 9) Mikey has developed epilepsy following a brain injury, but it also boosts his spiritual powers. He and Raph share an empathic connection. ...I really got attached to Deanna Troi and Jean Grey when I was a teenager, okay? Also, I am happy to discuss where the rest of the story might go and how and why. I’ll often switch to several perspectives in one chapter, like April (Storm) or Karai (Iron) or Ghost Of Splinter (Wind) or Shinigami (Magic). Mostly I’m just in love with writing Donnie talking about Mikey.  (PS, Mikey is Oxygen, duh. Don is Earth, Raph is Fire, Leo is Water. The Tumblr post for Mikey The Lifegiver is the second most popular blog post I’ve written so far. The first one is me waxing pagan about winter gods) Also, for my regular readers: You knew this sort of thing was gonna happen again. It’s all I write. Apparently, though, since 1999, I’ve had the most  wonderful contemporaries and competition. You hardcore Mikey fans, you’re the best, I love you all.

Donnie’s dreaming hard again, and he cherishes it. Usually is dreams are soft and quick, minnows in a stream, full of chrome and rust and the scent of oil, and there are tiny things in his hands, beeping and whirring, and there are giant things in front of him, clicking and rumbling; and the scars all over his hands reminds him that these are his, he made them, and they make sounds at him as though they are praising him.

Almost a year ago, shortly after Splinter died and Shredder died and Karai moved in, things began happening that challenged every science imaginable, but Donnie learned to be completely fine with it. Aside from Leo and Karai in a constant subtle battle over who would be sensei, Raph mellowed out and Mikey stopped pranking. Donnie was the only one who recognized Mikey as the catalyst: after enduring a series of traumas that they wouldn’t wish on their enemies, Mikey had become quieter, softer. His odd hyperfocusing moments turned on books without pictures and science documentaries and Donnie spent three weeks spying on him; it was no surprise when Mikey caught him each time, because Mikey had changed the most. Donnie and April ran every single test, and Mikey endured them with a strange fidgeting patience, but Rockwell in the end explained that Mikey’s Dimension X brain had finally caught up with him. He was almost like April. Don stopped being surprised when a beaker full of An Unusual Chemical dropped from his hands and floated back up to the table, despite it only being him and Mikey. Mikey, who folded his arms and grinned cheekily, and that was the day Donnie went to the closet and handed him a lab coat with his name on it.

Between their rotating autistic traits and interests, Donnie with engineering and physical science and Mikey with social sciences and cultural studies, they managed to create Things that made the lair easier to live in. With Mikey around, it was easier to navigate the entire city and study humans’ patterns, so certain stores, warehouses, junkyards, and clinics would stay their “borrowing” targets. With Donnie around, they had vehicles and cloaking devices to move further and deeper in.

So Donnie dreams heavily, about jumping from roof to roof in Staten Island, looking for that one military facility that up until now always had staff. Mikey is right behind him, ready with both kusarigama and grappling hook. Donnie stops and signals, and Mikey presses right against his carapace, wrapping one arm around his waist, extending the other to aim the grappling gun. Don signals again, and Mikey pushes off and practically flies – scratch that, he literally glides – and Donnie feels perfectly utterly safe as he casually throws an arm around his little brother’s shoulders. Mikey wouldn’t let them drop; they’d only hover. That’s how good he’s gotten. The grappling hook keeps catching on roof edges and Mikey lets it hover and glide to the next and the next, and they keep going.

They’re on the roof of the facility, over a mile from where they started, and Donnie pries open the secret door and they move in, and their flashlights roam. They remove their backpacks when he finds the correct room, and collect the items he’s already listed on his T-Phone. It’s silent, it’s swift, and the only thing that warns him is Mikey’s hiss and his voice in Donnie’s head: Donnie, get DOWN—

And Donnie flattens himself on the floor and the creature grazes him with a long metal toe as it leaps over him, and his right shoulder and bicep both rip open wide and his body spills blood rapidly. But it’s not the pain that makes him scream. It’s the strangled screeching gasp, full of pure agony and horror, that Mikey makes from somewhere behind him. No living creature should be making a sound like that unless it’s about to die...

There is precious seconds of heavy silence, and he hears Mikey make that familiar, inhuman growl that all the turtles make when enraged, when their human sides shrink and their literal reptilian brains take over with crushing power. The creature howls in pain and shock, and Mikey lets out a roar that contains Donnie’s name scrawled into it, and then there is crashing, there is stabbing, punching, shrieking, snarling, bones cracking and flesh squelching and liquid spurting and other noises that Donnie will hear in his post-traumatic nightmares. Donnie crawls forward, collapses on his back, turns around and forces himself to stand.

The creature has Mikey pinned to the ground, and shadowed blood is pooling everywhere. And then Mikey kicks and flips the creature over with a furious shriek, and through the darkness Donnie sees his teeth flash in a savage grin, you do not want to see that kind of smile on Mikey’s face, and Donnie sees him coated in shadows, launching again at the creature, smacking his nunchaku again and again…and then the creature stops moving, stops making noise; and Donnie hears his own harsh, pained breathing, and his brother’s harsh, pained breathing, and he manages to call out, “Mikey, are you okay?”

There’s a pause. “I’m always okay, Dee,” comes a breezy reply, but it is thin and strained. “Hey, Dee, what’s hurt on you?”

“My right shoulder and upper arm, but I can patch it up. You?”

A longer pause, much much longer.

“Can I take a raincheck on answering that?”

Donnie feels his gut turn to ice. “Mikey?”

He sees the dark figure of his brother hold up a finger. “Just…gimme…a sec.”

Within that second, Mikey falls to his knees. Donnie feels himself lurch forward. His eyes strain. The shadows on his brother are not shadows. They are too shiny. He’s covered in it.

No. No. Please, no, not again, I can’t handle this again.

It’s not the blood loss making Donnie feel so dizzy. He struggles to move, and watches, in slow motion, as Mikey falls over completely, smacking the floor, and it is a wet smack, and liquid is still pooling around him. And Don starts to hyperventilate, because he’s not sure where the light switch might be in this room and where the first aid kits are, and suddenly the darkness is too dark and the floor opens up and he is being swallowed, and he cannot reach Mikey, and then he falls, and as he falls his T-Phone rings, and something presses its energy button, and it’s blaring in his ears, louder and louder, calling MIkey’s name.

Donatello bolts up screaming, and it is too dark and he can’t see. A door crashes open. A body launches at him, and before he can take another breath, a pair of arms are wrapped around him and a plastron is pressed against his, and his chin is on a broad muscley shoulder, and the scent he breathes in is pure Raphael.

“Raph,” he squeaks out. “Hey--”

“Sshhh, Donnie, easy,” the hoarse voice murmurs. “It was a dream. You’re okay.”

He finds himself awkwardly patting his older brother’s upper carapace, trying to politely pull away. “Raph…Raph, I realize that…can I breathe? Please?”

Raph pulls away, green eyes serpentine in the darkness of his bedroom. The way his head tilts, too.

“I’m fine, Raph. I promise. I know it’s a nightmare.”

Those eyes and that head tilt remain fixed on him.

“Donnie, this is your fourth nightmare. Do you realize that?”

Really?

“Um. No?” He’s been so busy between his lab and the sectioned-off infirmary that Rockwell and Slash and Casey helped build that he sometimes doesn’t remember going to bed.

“Well, it is. And I’ll bet it’s the exact same one. Yours are weird.” Raph sits back, agura style, and Donnie draws his knees up to make room. “They’re like clockwork. Once a week. And, y’know, this is the fourth week since--”

“I know. And you guys dragged me to my own bed when you knew I wouldn’t stay here.”

“You did this time,” Raph points out.

“True. Wait, I did?”

“Congratulations on a full twelve hours of sleep, bro. It’s ten in the morning.”

Donnie feels his eyes grow wide. He throws the covers off and jumps off his bed. “I’m missing work, I--”

Raph’s strong hand slaps against his chest. “Remember what we all agreed on? Until your shoulder and arm is fully functional, you don’t do anything complex without someone helping you. I hope you were planning on asking someone.”

Donnie narrows his eyes. “Do you know how to handle the complex alien chemicals I need to work on? Plus the newer components of the retromutagen?”

“If not me, you have April. Or Rockwell. Or Shini.”

Donnie sighs, looks at his immobilized arm, and sighs again.

“You’re a stubborn bastard, Hamato Donatello.”

“You’re worse.”

“I am a paragon of complacency, little brother.”

And Donnie winces. “Try not to call me that?”

“Oh. Right. I forgot. You’re right. Sorry, Don.”

Donnie sighs and gets dressed.

“Um.” Raph rubs the back of his head. “So, nothing’s changed this morning. That’s…like, good, right? Kinda?”

“Kinda,” Donnie says. “It means that Mikey is continuing to heal. Which is the best we can hope for in this situation.”

As he heads out of his room and toward the lab doors, Raph catches up. “You should eat something first.”

“I need to check his vitals and change his IV bags.”

“Karai did that.”

“Even the GI tube?”

“Yeah, that one too.”

Donnie pauses. “I just need to see…”

“Donnie.” Raph is impossibly firm, and very soft. “Donnie, everything you could do has been done. We’ve watched you and learned from you for a whole month. It’s a routine. And part of the routine is that those of us who aren’t doing the routine help ourselves first. It’s your turn.”

Donnie is very silent as Raph steers him toward the kitchen. Leo is finishing up a plate of eggs, toast, and tea. Shinigami is making two more plates.

“Oh, you got him up! Good morning, Donatello. Did your nightmare complete itself?” The witch’s smile is knowing and polite, and he has gotten used to her specific brand of sass. She is, after all his little brother’s girlfriend and his sister’s girlfriend.

He mumbles “yes” because shrugging his shoulders still hurts. He eats mechanically, even as he is poked at to make conversation. Raph has started giving him daily protein shakes. There is one next to his plate. He drinks it and crushes the bottle, casually proving how fine he is. Sometimes the others forget how strong he is.

He misses having Mikey around to defend him.

“I’ll be in the infirmary,” Shinigami says, and Donnie startles. When he looks at her, he sees dark, deep circles under her eyes. Her fair complexion is blotchy and even paler than usual. And he wants to slap himself. She loves him. She has so much love, she loves Mikey and Karai so much. And Karai, to see her baby brother like this. Abruptly, he stands up, wraps his arms around Shini, and grips her like one of Mikey’s famous octopus hugs.

She simply buries her face in his neck and holds him tight.

 * * * *

Donnie is at his computer. As he’s reading and copying notes, he can’t help but hear her from the infirmary corner, and after a while he gives up trying to ignore it. He stretches his neck to catch a glimpse.

Shinigami has been sitting by Mikey’s bedside for fifteen minutes, and she only started speaking a couple of minutes ago. Don sees her hand tighten around Mikey’s as she talks.

“…keeps insisting nothing hurts, of course, but I refuse to believe her. Even when she shifted back and forth to her snake form, I could tell her arm was giving her trouble. Even the snake looked sad!” A small laugh, humorless. “Oh, sweet Mikey, you should see the looks she gives me when I point out her pain. She thinks I don’t see it. I see everything about her.” A pause. “I see everything about you too, you know. I see the subtle shifts in your facial muscles when you slip one of your behavior masks on. You know what I mean. When you fake smile, or your laugh is not real? I see it. You should not ever be sad, my Mikey. I told Karai I would do anything to protect her. Now that promise extends to you. Therefore, you must recover from this. You must hold me again so I can tell you I love you. You must hold me tightly, like an octopus, and laugh into my hair, and spin me around, and talk about your comics and your television shows. Tell me about Hamato Yoshi and how he adored you. Tell me about your brothers and your adoration of each of them, how they are your heroes. You and Donatello are very close. I know you wish to have so much knowledge and skill the way does.”

Donnie bites his lip and blushes a little. He almost feels like a sensei, in a way, the way Mikey looks at him while he works or while he is showing Mikey a project. He pictures the last lesson they’d had. April was there. She and Mikey were side by side, chins in their hands, looking at him lovingly, freckled faces and blue eyes alight, looking like mischievous twins.

He wants Mikey to wake up and look like that again.

He doesn’t know when Mikey will wake up. That hurts him most of all. This coma is different, deep and frightening. Mikey lost a lot of blood, and the mutant hit him in the neck, and Donnie knows how bad that can be. Concussion. Oxygen loss. Brain function compromised. Brain damage. Mikey already has enough. Donnie is worried.

Shini’s voice startles him.

“We miss you, Michelangelo. I miss you. I…need you. You must come back soon. Please.” And Donnie watches as Shinigami leans forward and presses her lips to Mikey’s, and smiles. She squeezes his limp, broken hand again. She stands up and begins to walk toward the door, then changes course, coming toward the lab. Donnie blinks at her.

She smiles at him. “What you working on?”

“Oh, um…” he glances down. “Taking notes on neurobiological function in humans and reptiles. I believe our brains are almost fully human, but we probably have neuronal and hormonal responses similar to diamondback turtles, too.”

“Mikey will sometimes make little noises,” Shini offers. “They’re not human.”

Donnie nods. “Yes. Chirping. Cooing. Growling. A kind of purring growl, like churring. Hissing.”

He shifted through the pages, wrote down some more notes.

“You aren’t going to do that all day, are you?”

Donnie glances up. Shini has leaned her hip against the table and is smirking. “Leo wants everyone in the dojo for training. Is this very important?”

He bites his lip, looks at his screen. “I guess it can wait until later.” He saves the file. Shinigami takes him by the elbow and steers him out of the lab. Interestingly, Raph is waiting there, arms crossed. He smirks and nods. “Good. Good Donnie.” Shinigami giggles, as if the two had planned it.

“How’s Mikey?” Raph asks, automatically.

Shini just shrugs. “The same. Karai wonders if I can use my witchcraft to find him in the astral plane. It is a thought.”

Raph raises an eyeridge. “Damn straight, it’s a thought. He’s been healing pretty well. Maybe it’s time to try reaching out to him instead of waiting for him to wake up.”

Donatello sits up straight and snaps his fingers. “It can be a family effort!” That seems to light a fire in Raphael, and he joyfully reaches out to fistbump Shinigami, who has a wide smirk on her face and a glint in her eye. Donnie feels stronger and happier than he’s felt in weeks.

[remmushound]

Bay/rise 24!! Sorry it ends quite suddenly; the fighting went on for longer than I anticipated. @selfindulgenz @brightlotusmoon @errorfreak88

Content warning!! Panic attack and violence are featured!!

Four solid turtles landed with solid thuds on the rooftop. Leo was thankful for the quick approach of sunset that cast the city into the shadows they learned to live by. One quick look around the rooftop revealed nothing out of the ordinary as far as Leo could see.

“Thought you said she’d be here Don?” Leo sighed. It wasn’t that he disliked going out of his way, not when the life of an April was at risk, but they couldn’t risk coming out when the city was still active.

“She should have been.” Donnie whispered, checking his wristband as his forehead wrinkled in concentration, “I don’t have footage of her leaving…”

“Well, you see a teenage girl anywhere?” Raph growled.

“Man, I was excited!” Mikey snapped his fingers, “This would be like the third chick I know! Hope she thinks I’m cute!”

“Who wouldn’t think you’re cute, Mike?” Raph snarled.

“Aw, thanks bro!”

“Guys!” Donnie said, his goggles now pulled over his eyes as he looked around the area. “I think I figured out our issue.”

The air around them was filled with the stuff. Like pink cloud of cotton candy betraying the faintest traces of Dimension X. He gave the goggles over to Leo so the leader could observe for himself. Leo became unusually quiet as he eyed the strange cloud, then gave the googles back to Donnie and stalked off to the corner of the roof to get what little privacy he could to mull over his thoughts.

“What’s Samurai Jack over there bummed about?” Raph huffed, his voice betraying the concern for his brother.

“There’s traces of Dimension X here.” Donnie explained.

“So? We already knew Bubblicious was back.” Raph shrugged.

“Yeah— we knew he was in his dimension, not that he could get into ours. If he can come through again, then he might be trying to bring the technodrome through.”

“So? We beat him once!”

“And Mikey was nearly cracked like a walnut! I’d rather not go through that whole situation again— it hasn’t even been a year!”

“Well we know what to expect this time so it shouldn’t be that difficult!”

Donnie opened his mouth, but then quietly reserved. “Leo— I— if Krang’s in the city still, I could probably track him?”

“What are the chances of that?” Leo asked, almost imperceptibly soft.

“Uh… not very likely… but if there’s even a small chance then…”

“Then you should try. Go ahead, then.”

Donnie nodded and set his tracker to work. 

The wait was the longest ten minutes of Mikey’s life. Granted, every minute usually passed like an eternity to him, but it was always a lot harder when he got like this. Always without warning, it could seize him and squeeze him tight like some icky, cold octopus. Or maybe it was like… the thing he couldn’t think of. Maybe he was still there and that’s why he couldn’t breath and that’s why his chest felt tight and painful and why the world was suddenly spinning circles. He wanted to sit, so he did.

“Hey bro, you good?” 

Raph’s touch was innocent enough, just a simple wrap of his arm around Mikey’s shell and a gentle squeeze, but for Mikey it was agony. It was like fire shot through his body and he just needed to run because if he didn't then his mind was screaming at him that he would die—

Donnie’s announcement came just in time to save Mikey’s life. “Hey Leo, I got a hit!”

That caught Leo’s attention. “Great. Where to next?”

***

“I’m only going to ask this once more. Where are the turtles?!” Baron Draxum demanded, his voice booming with a robotic enhancement.

“Last I saw, they were in Nunya.”

“Nunya?”

“NUNYA BUISNESS!”

Cassandra laughed and pointed at Baron, making the yokai glare back at her with angry eyes. “You walked right into that one! Just like ligma!”

“Ligma? Who’s ligma?”

“LIGMA BALLS!”

Both Cassandra and April laughed that time. April’s eyes were forever trained on the orb. April had long since given up on escaping the restraints but she was still bubbling with fury at seeing her precious orb in the grip of someone so villainous. Cassandra had the artifact strapped safely to her belt. Yet still, for some reason, April laughed along with the foot soldier that could destroy everything she protected at the slightest whim.

“You are really getting on my nerves, little girl…” Draxum leaned over April with a threatening scowl, his lion-like features visible even through the new armor that covered him. 

“Why are you doing this?” April knew what she was doing. She had spent so long with Donatello that the drama and the tears came to her like the flick of a switch, the emotions on the outside not at all matching the inside. Outside, she was a mess of tears and distress while inside her mind was calculated and almost cold as she considered every possible escape. “I thought you changed…”

Draxum laughed. A cold, chilling laugh with no warmth in at all. No care for the fate of the teen in front of him. Caring only for his own self-preservation and willing to toss everything and everyone aside to achieve the goals in his mind.

“You seriously think thousands of years of being evil and I could switch to being all sunshine and daisies because some pathetic failure of an experiment asked nicely?”

April couldn’t hide her rage, giving a battle cry as she tried to lunge out of her seat. Baron Draxum pulled away at the last minute and laughed as April topped over, unable to catch herself due to her restraints and slamming her face hard into the cold concrete. Her war shout turned into a painful cry as the impact reverberated inside her skull and rattled her to her core. It took a few seconds of numbness before pain returned to her tenfold.

“Oops.” Baron Draxum laughed, “Sorry.” He laughed and raised his hoof to give her another solid blow, but the impact never landed.

“GET AWAY FROM HER!”

Baron Draxum looked up just as a massive figure came from the sky in a flip, a powerful kick landing on his outstretched leg and making the sheep bleat in a pain of his own. All April could see from her position on the floor were a set of massive green feet, but she didn't have to wait long before the chair was lifted effortlessly off of the ground and back upright, her binds undone with a quick flash of a pocketknife.

“Hi, I’m Michelangelo.” The massive green giant gave a dopey smile and pointed to his orange mask. “Like, don’t be scared dudette I’m totally here to be your prince in shining armor! Uh. With no armor!”

“Huh. Okay.” April had seen weirder.

Like she were little more than a sack of potatoes, April was lifted bridal style and carried away from the conflict by the strange mutant calling himself by her friend's name.

“Where’s Krang?” Leo demanded, aiming his katana at what he perceived as a mutant attacker.

Baron Draxum stared curiously. “You must be the Leonardo of this world. Strange. I imagined you smaller!” With the enunciation of the word, Draxum brought a vine down upon the leader and whipped him hard against the soft of his chest, sending ninja flying backward with the force.

Before Draxum could revel in his victory, a bigger force slammed into him and knocked him off his hooves, sending Draxum into the air a few feet. The yokai came down hard but turned his slide into a charge. Raph had his sai ready, deflecting the blows that Draxum tried to land on him while landing a few punches when the opportunity presented itself.

“Master Draxum!” Cassandra was momentarily distracted and Donnie took the opportunity to jump out of his own hiding place and swing his staff toward her. Cass caught onto the attempted attack from the corner of her eye and swung her naginata to intercept the blow, locking her and the mutant into a struggle. 

Cassandra dug her feet into the ground as hard as she could, dragging the turtle as close to the other spar as she dared before putting everything she had into a sudden turn that caught Donnie off balance and sent him stumbling into Raph.

“What the Hell Don—“ Raph lost his focus and Baron Draxum jumped, slamming both hooves hard into the giants chest to send him knocking into Donnie once more. Then a sudden ankle-swipe from Cassandra had them both on the ground tangled in each other's limbs.

Cassandra ran to Draxum’s side and they gave each other a fist bump.

Leo charged back into the fray with a blow aimed at Draxum, but Cassandra caught sight of the attempted attack and shoved her master out of the way.

“Master!” 

Leo’s charge handed hard against her and he didn't stop charging until he had slammed her into the wall.

“Cassandra!” Draxum, despite his years of experience, was dumbfounded by the sudden rescue from the general. He looked behind him when he heard another battle cry and spun to catch Mikey mid-jump, the vines wrapping around Mikey’s shell securely before spinning him around and tossing him carelessly. Mikey ducked into his shell before the impact and didn't come back out.

“You children are getting on my nerves!”

Raph and Donnie untangled themselves from each other finally and charged Draxum as a unit.

“Good teamwork.” Draxum brought his vines neck-level with the charging brothers and knocked them both flat on their carapace with their own momentum.

Cassandra was still too preoccupied with her assault on Leo to lend any assistance to her master. Leo was caught off guard by how weaselly the general was, zooming in and out and up and down and, by the time any of his blows were ready, she was already somewhere else. He didn't want to praise the enemy, but damn was she fast!

“Would you— stop moving?!” Leo was starting to get frustrated.

Finally, the soldier kicked off his chest and landed a short distance away on her hands and feet, shooting up quickly and brandishing her naginata. “FOOT CLAAAAAAAAN!”

She charged Leo again and flashed her weapon, the blade just barely brushing across Leo’s plastron before he was able to pull back and dodge the attack.

“Do not waste all your energy at once, general.” Draxum’s voice was surprisingly steady despite taking on Raph and Donnie’s attacks at once. He deflected another one of Donnie’s attacks and once more the lanky teen stumbled. “You need to work on your balance recovery.” Another attack from Raph that Draxum had been anticipating. “You need to mix up your attacks!”

Raph growled, “STOP GIVING ME ADVICE!”