Chapter Text
Leo walked down the hall, both swords drawn, shoulders tensed, ready for anything. The stark white hallway grates his nerves; the uncanny cleanliness makes him shift uneasily, half expecting some horror movie monster to jump out at him.
Rounding a corner the next hallway is only about 20 feet before the next turn, he just barely sees the end of a green tail disappearing from view. He only knows one person here that’s got a tail long enough for that, it has to be Red! Leo quickly sheaths his swords and darts down the hall, turning on his heel at the end
“Red!”
The large figure before him startles and almost strikes out at Leo before stopping abruptly. He looks like red, but slightly off; This turtle is bigger, has more spikes adorning his arms and shoulders, and still has both eyes
“Geez! I almost clocked you, don’t do that!”
“Red? Is that you?”
“Yeah it’s me…but not the Red you know I guess”
“What?”
“Nevermind, we gotta go” Red turns back down the hall with a huff and waves a hand motioning for Leo to follow him
“Hold on a minute! Red, when did you come back to your senses? How—“ Red whips back around, brows furrowed
“Listen pal! I don’t know what the hell is going on, I’ve only got a vague idea of what’s happened—“
“Then let me help! Your brothers and you landed here—“
“Yeah I know, Leo! Mind tried to keep me informed but I’ve only gotten bits and pieces. One moment, we’re eatin’ dinner, the next I’m out here and I can’t hear any of the others! Even Mind ain’t here” Leo isn’t surprised that Red is as curt as he is, he’s a version of his hot-headed brother after all, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it.
It’s obvious that Red is struggling with memory loss, understandably after all, Angelo did say they don’t remember what they did when in this ‘feral’ mode. Red seems to remember a little bit, maybe that’s connected to how he can still speak and understand most English when feral, but definitely not all. He raises his hands in a placating gesture,
“You and Mikey were kidnapped by Bishop—“
“Who the fuck is Bishop?!”
“He’s an enemy of our that’s obsessed with protecting the Earth from alien threats” Red raises one brow and crosses his arms
“I know, but listen, he took you and Mikey here. My brothers, Angelo, and I came here to break you out”
“Angelo? What about my Leo and Donnie? Where are they?”
“We left them at our lair with Master Splinter, we decided their injuries were too severe to risk bringing them on this mission”
“Hmph…Ight, then let’s get goin’, gotta find the others and whoever this Bishop is” Red turns around again and starts walking. Leo quickly joins him; brushing against his arm briefly, he feels a slight vibration from the turtle…odd
Donnie walks cautiously through the winding hallway, mentally mapping out where he’s been with every turn he takes. When he comes across a split in the path he’s not sure which way to go; did Bishop create an elaborate maze? Or did it just feel that way because of the halls looking the same? Before he can overthink things too much he distantly hears a splashing sound down the left hall; if water is leaking into the base there he might be able to get out!
Rushing quietly down the hall until he reaches a new, very different, room; it’s filled with aquariums holding different fish, some are broken and empty. His eyes follow the destruction until they land on a large figure
“Red?!”
The large turtle turns towards him. It looks like Red but…different. His beak is more pronounced and doesn’t have a snaggletooth, his proportions are less human; shell and plastron taking up more space and his limbs are shorter. The spikes on his elbows are considerably smaller, less pointed, and there’s an almost invisible electric red haze around his silhouette when he moves.
“New purple!”
“Is that really you Red? Did Bishop do something to you?!” Red didn’t answer as he walked over and patted Donnie’s head. It wasn’t like before; before Red’s hand was a heavy, solid weight, but now it’s somehow lighter with the faintest hum
“New purple help Wild”
“Huh? What? Wild? Red what are you saying?” Red huffs and points to his chest
“Wild. New purple help Wild!”
“Uhhh, okay?” Wild smiles at that, shoves his hand into the aquarium he’s standing in front of, and pulls out a bass
“…I don’t think it’s really the time for food right now, Re—Wild”
“Not us. For Savage” Wild swiftly snaps the wriggling fishes neck and plops it into Donnie’s hands
“Savage? Who’s Savage?”
“When I find that sunofabitch I swear I’m gonna kill him! Sick of this—“ Raph stops dead in his tracks when the sound of running feet echoes down the hall. With all the un-Bishop-like things that've happened so far, there’s no telling what or who could be waiting for him. Silently he takes out his sai, keeping them blade in against his forearms for now, and creeps forwards.
As he gets closer, the soft footfalls seem to stop and are replaced by…whimpers? He’s at the end of the hall now, only a turn between him and what or whoever is there
“Savage…alone! Alone…alone…a…alone” The small quivering voice calls out to no one, muffled cries follow soon after. It sounds like a child…
Raph sighs and puts his sais away. Peeking around the corner he indeed sees a small figure. Stocky, green, and spiky. He already wanted to kill Bishop, but to subject a tot to horrors he could only imagine? He was going to enjoy making that bastard suffer.
The kid is sitting in the middle of the hall, tail curled around their tucked knees, arms crossed on top, and their face pressed against said arms. Little guy’s shoulders are shaking, he must be so scared. Raph steps out and, in as soft a voice as he can manage, says
“Hey kid, listen I know it’s scary—“ the tot’s head shoots up to look at him, eyes filled with terror and unshed tears, and hurriedly kicks his legs out, pushing himself away from Raph
“Sewer monster!”
“What? No! Kid, listen, it’s okay! I’m not—“ the words die in Raph’s mouth as the tot in front of him contorts his shape; growing large, colors fading and darkening until he’s almost just a silhouette of spikes lined with electric red light. The circular glowing white eyes lock onto him, mouth opening to reveal huge sharp teeth, and bellows,
“SAVAGE RAPH KILL SEWER MONSTER!”
“WHAT THE FU—“ Raph leaps away as a huge fist slams down, cracking the floor beneath it. So much for that being a child! What the hell is this?! Did Buship make this thing? Did he experiment on some random turtle? What was with that man’s obsession?!
He can’t get a good look at this thing; the body’s too dark and he has to keep moving to avoid getting crushed or shocked by the weird lighting coming off of it. Raph ducks under a punch and the huge thing breaks into the wall, causing dust to fill the hallway. He uses that to run a few feet down, grabs one of his Sai, and gets ready holding it by the middle prong. When the figure stomps through the dust he takes aim, he doesn’t know what bishop did to this thing-but it’s suffering, better to put it out of its misery.
He throws the Sai, it twirls through the air, spike coming around in time to stab it right between the eyes…only for the Sai to fly right through. The creature’s shape fizzes out a little and makes it stumble. It shakes its head and swipes at its face for a moment before returning focus back to Raph
The creature roars again and rushes forward. Raph jumps up and off the side wall to leap over them. He snatches his Sai up as he dashes down the hallway, a roar letting him know the creature’s following him
He’s in trouble
Angelo stomped down the hall, his arms still burn from earlier but he doesn’t care. The fire in his chest won’t be quelled until he gets his hands on Bishop.
The universe, two universes won’t let him, his brothers, or his family’s counterparts rest. What cosmic joke has been played on them? Why must they keep suffering? Why is he constantly forced to watch his loved ones put through so much pain?
He thought this was his chance; with Tello and Leon too hurt to come on the mission, this was his chance to save them for once! Is he cursed to watch his brothers save them? To see them throw themselves to near death just to make sure he doesn’t get hurt?
He’s the youngest, sure, but that doesn’t mean his life is worth any more than theirs! He—
“Mikey!” Came a quiet voice, Angelo snaps out of his thoughts to look around the hall but no one’s there.
“Down here!” Angelo looks down to see a tiny figure, he can barely believe his eye as he recognizes the red banded turtle
“Raph?!” Angelo drops to his knees “Omigosh what happened to you?! Did Bishop shrink you?!”
“Buddy calm down! I’m Mind”
“Mind?! But—what? How? You hate fronting! And, and, and whaaa?”
“I know, I know, it’s super weird! But listen, that creepy human did something that kicked me out of the body’s head”
“But…then how are you here?”
“Raph’s clone Jitsu, here pick me up” Angelo scoops up the mini version of his brother into the palm of his hand
“Whoa, you barely weigh anything!”
“Mhm! Now come on, we’ve gotta help the others. Raph’s body is unconscious and so is the other Mikey”
“You know where they are?!”
“Course I do! I ran to get help”
“Well then let’s roll baby! Lead the way!”