Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Wrong Turn
Trigger Warning/Disclaimer note: The following chapter contains mentions of Blood and Gore as well as depictions of an anxiety attack. If you are uncomfortable reading topics relating to those mentions, you may skip to the end for a summary of this chapter. The well-being of the reader is top priority and I would like to make this story as enjoyable as much as I enjoy writing :D Thank you!
It all happened way too fast.
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.
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The air was filled with thick smoke and a plethora of sounds echoed within their surroundings. It’s as if they were fighting for dominance making everything incredibly hard to comprehend what exactly was going on, It made his head spin to the point that even his vision started playing tricks on him; his hands, feeling number from gripping onto the worn out katana hilt, are shaking as he staggered to lean against the wall next to him, his mind was clouded by the sound of his own breathing. Michelangelo closed his eyes as he recalled back on how things ended up this way; They were caught off-guard, but he should’ve known this would happen, if only he wasn’t overly-confident and foolish to have striked an ambush alone against the Foot clan the other night in which ended in failure of course they would retaliate back ten-fold.
“If you were here you would’ve foreseen this happen a mile away, Leo”
He cursed at himself, his mind once again playing tricks on him, and as he opened his eyes, Leonardo was standing in front of him. His expression riddled with disappointment as he spoke to Michaelangelo with a stoic tone.
“Well, what’s done is done, Mikey
…
Get back up and go in there and help April and Casey Marie”
“You talk as if that’s not what I’m already trying to do”
Michelangelo hisses back at his brother, brushing him off and shaking his head to get his thoughts straight. Unbuckling his belt and using the leather strip to tie the katana around his hand, securing it before grabbing the sai from his waist. It’s become dull from being used time and time again, and one of the prongs already chipped off, with the red band protecting the hilt had become faded and brittle. Taking one last deep breath, Michelangelo charges back to where the other foes were; the sewers were infested with the corpses of Foot ninja, drenched in the blood of both parties. The debris gradually got worse as he sprinted up to where the abandoned subway was connected. Pushing away the broken walls, and hacking through attackers that came for him, his eyes frantically scanning the area.
“APRIL?! CASEY?!”
To him, even yelling was a detrimental chore, his voice was hoarse and it stung the more he shouted for his remaining family. The yelling was only cut off by his already faint lungs giving in, causing him to choke on his own words and breathing, there it was again, the ringing in his ear making him stagger.
“Hey Big man, Raph really thinks we should take a step back and think of a plan?”
His voice cracking with his breathing trying to fight his words as he turned to refute Raphael.
“I don’t have time to think of a plan, Raph! I can’t find April, I can't find Casey!”
“Woah woah Calm down, bud maybe–”
“Mikey?!”
Michelangelo was quick on his feet as he sprinted to where the voice was calling out, he in turn, calling out back to the voice, followed by the sound of coughing slowly increasing in volume as he got closer. It was April, slowly limping out of the rubble, wounds open and leaking through the fabric of her uniform as she assisted an unconscious Casey Marie. Her face lit up with relief as soon as she saw Michelangelo, but as she was about to call out to him once more, the low subway ceiling started to come loose. Tucking the sai back in the scabbard strapped to his thigh, he grabs the worn tech-bo staff from the sheath on his back, throwing it to block the ceiling from falling onto his family. He rushes in to move them away from danger, the staff slowly bending from the weight of the debris. While he moved them to a safer, yet still hidden spot, he uses a grappling hook to salvage the staff away before it snapped, causing the rubble to finally fall. He watched as he froze in horror at the thought of all that debris falling on April and Casey Marie. If he wasn’t quick enough, the fact that he managed to get them out was already a miracle. The sound of April’s coughing snapped him out of it, putting the tech bo-staff back in the sheath, he quickly moved to their aid.
“April? Are you okay? Is Casey Marie okay?”
As he spoke his hands already went to work laying the younger lass on the ground, examining for injuries and treating her as much as he could, removing the bandana he wore on his face to stop the bleeding from her arm. April on the other hand slumped next to Casey with a groan, her arm prosthetic sparking as it was heavily dented and cut.
“You should check on that arm of hers, Angelo…it’s dangerous to keep it on her”
“Easy for you to say…I don’t know how your tech works…”
Michelangelo spoke under his breath as he gave Donatello a glare before shifting his attention back to April and Casey.
“April, I am so so sorry…If only I was more careful we wouldn’t be ambushed like this a-and and….”
“Mikey, Mikey hey…we talked about this aight? Let’s focus on finding a way outta here…”
April’s gaze soon dropped as she looked at Casey and how her breathing seemed to stabilize, making herself sigh in relief before wincing from the pain in her arm. Michelangelo frowned as he gently tried to pull the malfunctioning arm towards him in hopes to figure out how to remove it but was reluctantly pulled away by April.
“But April, I have to get that thing off you”
“Don’t worry about me, I'm fine, how’s Case doing?”
He sighed and gave a frown as he looked at the unconscious girl next to them, checking her once again before facing April.
“She’s fine for now, I looked for exits in the sewer area but they infiltrated that place too”
“I see,the exits are all blocked where we came from as well”
“So what you are saying is…”
“Yep”
They both fell silent, they were trapped like cornered mice. Was this how things would end? No, he refused to believe it. He still had a destiny to pursue, but it’s hard to deny the facts being presented to him right now. Gritting his teeth, he angrily hits the concrete floor with his bare knuckles.
“Woah hey buddy, don’t beat yourself up”
“It’s my fault in the first place, April…I’m sorry”
The turtle sulked as he hit the floor once more, this made April bare a sour expression, it pained her to see her dear friend and little brother give up and lose hope like this, she took a deep breath and staggered to stand up and move closure to him, resting a hand gently on his shell and making him look up at her.
“C’mon Mikey, we can’t give up now…We faced the Shredder AND those meat-loaf looking alien nerds before!”
“Yeah but that’s when I had my brothers with me…No amount of Mystic nonsense can bring them back, we established that, remember?”
Michelangelo simply glared at her, his words laced with the same bitterness he felt inside, his past wasn’t worth reminiscing about, those memories of hope felt more like a slap to the face than a beacon at this point. April frowned and looked down at Casey, before her eyes widened in realization before turning back to Michelangelo.
“That’s it! Mystic nonsense!”
“What about it?”
She quickly dropped to his level and held onto his shoulders with a big determined smile on her face, Michelangelo squinted at her as he bit the inside of his cheek with uncertainty.
“I don’t like whatever is brewing in your head already…”
“Mikey listen…I need you to tap into your Mystic powe–”
“Forget it”
“Mikey!”
His face twisted from uncertainty to pure anger as he moved away from her, going back to tend to Casey Marie, preparing to pick her up gently, completely ignoring April.
“Mikey, Please you and I both know it’s the only way.”
“No, There are other ways and we just need to find it, and first thing’s first…I need to get you both somewhere safer instead of wasting time here”
“Michelangelo!”
“No means no, April…Look I know we are in a tight spot but I can get us out of here, And I’m sure my brothers would do the same”
“Your brothers would listen and face the facts!”
“I don’t think I have mystic-anything left in me, okay? It’s been ages since I’ve used my Hamato whatever”
Before another word was spoken, the sound of footsteps and muffled indistinguishable voices were getting closer, They looked at each other and Michelangelo quickly secured Casey in his arms as he desperately took a hole of April’s arm, ushering her to stand up and move along with him.
“They’re here, see? We shouldn’t have wasted time!”
His voice was low but the whispers that escaped his lips were aggressive, he clicked his tongue angrily as April pulled away from his grip and held onto his arm, making him face her.
“Mikey please, I know you’re scared but just this once…You don’t have to open a portal to the past or anywhere far…just summon a portal far enough to a safer place”
The footsteps were getting louder and louder, shadows quickly approaching the area they were in. They were sitting ducks and in only a matter of time they would all be outnumbered. Michelangelo went ahead and grabbed her by the wrist again, this time his demanding aura shifted to him, begging her to move with him. His senses were overwhelming him as he panicked, it was starting to get harder and harder to breathe; he looked at the shadows getting closer, he looked at the prosthetic that clung to April’s arm still sparking. His hearing becomes muffled by the sound of his own heartbeat blocking out the noises from his surroundings.
“April…Please, We can’t fight all of them and we need to get Casey out of here…”
“I know that’s why you have to go ahead and take her with you, I’ll buy you time.”
“Wait. What?”
His eyes widened with realization, his head shaking slowly in disbelief before holding onto her arm, tears beading and attempting to fall. He can’t lose another family member…Why is she doing this? Why won’t she listen? He was angry at her stubbornness…the same like his late-brothers but he was also sad, he can’t let go of April, she and Casey are the only ones he had left.
She didn’t say anything.
He kept ushering her, all sound seemed to have been replaced with ringing. He begged but he couldn’t hear his own pleas.
She smiled as she moved to rest her foot on his chest, careful enough to not disturb Casey that rested in his arms, with a final wink she kicked him with all her might away into another doorway.
He was holding the wrong arm.
“WAIT!”
She hit the flimsy wall with one final blow from her trusty mystic bat, blocking the doorway, forever separating her and the other two. He simply stood there, shaken and in distraught, dropping the prosthetic on the cold floor. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry his heart out but he didn’t have time to take a break. This was reality. Closing his eyes to stop his tears from falling down, he ran and made sure to stay as quiet as he could; it was a maze, everywhere he ran into was either blocked up or swarming with Foot patrollers but he kept running, there was bound to be another way out somewhere with how wide the sewers of new york were, right? Surely the Foot Clan couldn’t cover every nook and cranny of the underground.
He was starting to grow weary, tracing the walls as he limped to wherever the paths led him. His feet were tired and worn; cuts, blisters and bruises started to form at the bottom, it didn’t matter as long as he wasn’t leaving a blood trail, he didn’t care. His vision was starting to fail him, he had been walking for who knows how long and fatigue was catching up on him, he was even too tired to think. Was walking his new dead-end? Well that seems more peaceful than dying by the hands of his enemies. But what about Casey? He let his thoughts consume him when he looked around and his eyes fell onto the wall…there was…graffiti? Wait a minute.
“This…this is”
His eyes lit up as he recognized the graffiti on the walls. The wall drawings were all familiar, a wide smile spread across his face and his eyes started to well up once more as he started to walk faster…and faster…until his walk turned into a sprint.
“I knew it”
He was met with a familiar interior, it was the old lair from way back when he was younger, it was old and covered in dust, old rocks and debris, it feels like it’s been decades since he set foot in this place. Memories started flooding back in, most of the stuff were gone from their constant moving from place to place, especially after the previous ambushes they faced. This was no time to reminisce however, he shook his head and gently placed Casey Marie down, as he frantically started to rummage around in hopes to find anything that could help her. He checked the old rooms and then came the final room; it was Splinter’s. It was fairly empty aside from a few half-empty boxes.
“I see your father had a knack for collecting, shame he only kept the insignificant items.”
The atmosphere suddenly became thick and it felt as if the world itself was imploding against him, the cold spine-chilling tone was enough to make Michelangelo see red as the turtle quickly turned, tossing a shower of shuriken at the suspicious individual but before any of the stars hit him, the stranger bolted forward at Michelangelo with a blade drawn and aimed with the intent to kill, the shorter turtle blocked the blade but barely; still managing to pierce through his gear right above his plastron causing a shriek of pain to escape between his clenched teeth, his eyes however wide and locking into his attacker’s eyes, refusing to look away as he growled out his name, words filled with pure malice and disgust.
“Hiroto….”
Oroku Hiroto - delusional tyrant attempting to rebuild the fallen legacy of a clan that brought nothing but trouble upon society, The man that played the chess master with New York all being pawns in his game with no purpose, The culprit that hunted Michelangelo and his family to gain some secrets that don’t even exist…lastly, the twisted mastermind that slaughtered his brothers for sport- the sound of this man’s voice cut deep into Michelangelo but the sight of this man made his blood boil.
“Hiroto… How did you–”
“Find this place? While you and your family of pests were playing with my precious comrades, I took it upon myself to search for clues leading to the Shredder’s legacy through Yoshi’s belongings.” Hiroto’s lips curled into a smug sinister smirk as he pressed the blade of his katana deeper into the turtle’s flesh, it was as if the cries of agony were a symphony and Hiroto was the composer. “Your father was good at hiding things but I didn’t know he was this irresponsible”
This made Michelangelo squirm in an attempt to break free but it only caused the cold steel to burrow itself deeper into his body. Hiroto simply frowned - to him, the mutant before him was nothing but a weak obstacle in his way - he unsheathed a dagger from his side and raised it,ready to deliver the final blow when his arms were hit by a rather large rock, this made the two men turn to see a staggering and beat Casey Marie using the doorway to support her weight.
“Casey! You have to get out of h–”
He was pushed aside by Hiroto as he approached the young woman that interrupted him.
“Looks like we have another contender”
“Casey…Please don’t engage”
He was relieved that his pupil was alive and conscious now, but she wasn’t fit to fight, especially not face to face with this knock-off Shredder. Casey was tired and her body swayed as fatigue crept up on her bit by bit, with one hand adding extra support for her body against the wall and the other gripping the twin katana blade similar to his, also belonging to his late-brother Leonardo.
“Sensei Michelangelo. Make the portal”
So she was listening after all, he knew that at this point it was indeed the only way any of them would get out of this mess, he glanced at his hands then back at Casey Marie; his hands shaking as he felt his heart start pounding against his chest once more.
“The choice is clear, Angelo…don’t be a dum-dum and just do what you have to do”
“It’s the only chance you got, big man”
“Mikey, you have to use your mystic hands and make a portal bud”
Shut up…Shut up. SHUT UP! ALL THREE OF YOU SHUT UP! He slammed both fists on the ground in anger and in hopes to numb the shaking he felt, it frustrated him. Everything did but it’s a dead end now, he took a deep breath and he was free from his thoughts and back into reality, the muddled sounds and voices now clear as day again as he watched Casey Marie tiredly go head to head against Hiroto.
“Sensei Michelangelo! Please!”
“Enough with this Mystic nonsense! He is but a husk of who he once was”
Hiroto swiped the katana she held out of her hands with his own, kicking at her injury causing a wheeze to escape her as she fell.
“Sensei…I know you can do it”
“Silence!”
As Hiroto raised his katana to deliver a final blow, Michelangelo was quick to pull her out of harm’s way with mystic chains, they were dull and frail, barely glowing; as soon as she was dragged quickly next to him the chains vanished like shards of glass.
“Hm, I stand corrected…I suppose you do have some mystic abilities still residing in you but that won’t be enough, I’m afraid”
“Casey, I’m sorry and I know you’re already giving your all already…I should’ve listened to April…I should’ve listened to you”
“Sensei, I–”
“Save your breath because this will come off as asking too much, in which I once again ask for you to forgive me…Casey Marie, I need you to listen to me…I need you to buy me some time”
He did not have to explain further, his pupil understanding what he was about to do, simply gave him a determined nod as she stood up and equipped herself with two kunai from her belt scabbard.
“Whatever it is you are planning, I’d say let me finish this swiftly. You are wasting both our time”
Without warning Casey darted towards him with Michelangelo summoning his ghastly looking chains at him to aid her in hopes of throwing their opponent off, shattering once more after they did a single blow. Casey gave it her all as she swung and dodged to her best abilities as Michelangelo prepared to cast a portal. His mystic energy was weak, it flickered and faded, this angered him. Why was this so hard? If his brothers were with him, they’d know what to do. He hated the fact that he built himself to be dependent on his brothers, he barely grew up as he was left alone to fend for himself, this was what he wanted right? To be his own thing? Tears forcing their way down his cheeks, the swelling of his emotions made his chest hurt, he growled as he focused all his strength into his arms. He was about to give up but something inside him made him push forth even more until a spark started to show, soon that spark grew into a flicker and the flicker into an igniting flame.
“This is it!”
His spots glowing faintly and old scars from his arms began to crackle and through his skin was bright orange light piercing through, his breathing got heavier and his throat hurt more and more as it became dried up and scratched from his painful wailing only to be eased by the mix of bile and blood forming from the inside of his mouth; as soon as he got a grip of the small portal before him he began to desperately tug on the rim to make it big enough to pass through.
“Casey! Let’s go!”
He called out to his pupil still fighting tooth and nail with Oroku Hiroto, she tried getting past him but her frail exhausted body was no match for the more agile and unscathed Foot clan commander. Michelangelo wanted to help but the portal was too fragile to be left alone. Hiroto kicked Casey Marie away as if she was nothing but roadkill, turning towards the turtle with absolute blood lust riddled his face as he prepared to charge himself towards Michelangelo but the young pupil put all her weight into grabbing a hold of his legs, she sent a final smile as she struggled to keep Hiroto from getting anywhere.
Everything seemed to suddenly move so slow.
No. Not her.
I can’t be alone.
He couldn’t make out the sounds as he felt his head spin, he read her lips as she called out to him.
“Thank you, Sensei”
All he could do was watch in horror as the man she was trying to stop separated her torso from her head with a single swipe of the katana, another one dear to him out of his reach, he wasn’t even given enough time to process as slow became fast and everything sped up.
Move your legs. Make it through. Do it for them.
“HAMATO!”
Hiroto charged forth with his hand extended like talons ready to obtain his prey; Michelangelo stumbled on his feet as he pushed himself into the portal, Hiroto’s hand making it through and locking its cold unfeeling fingers around his neck. Was this it? Did he fail once more? Everything went dark and silent, the feeling of leather gripping his throat eased up as he felt like he was floating into an endless void. The sound of breathing and his own heart beating echoed around him, the melancholy of the emptiness was eerily peaceful as if he could finally be at rest, he closed his eyes perhaps he can finally be reunited with his family; is what he thought until he felt the peaceful uncertainty shift into his whole body feeling stretched and pulled apart, dragging him into a vacuum-like wormhole.
Blurry and chaotic colors,lights and sounds whirring all around him, his head felt as if it was being torn into pieces and stapled together over and over. All he could remember was the sound of 5 familiar voices and the pungent smell of what seemed to be the surface of the city. His body swayed before giving up and falling onto the puddle of what he could only comprehend to be his own blood. He slowly looked up and all he saw were splotches of colors that filled him with warmth and a sense of comfort, they seemed to approach him and all he could do was give a weak smile, uttering a single word, before passing out. And the last thing he felt were warmth hands holding him making him feel secure, even the faint humming and indistinguishable chatter was calming and enough to lull him to a blacked out bliss.
“Ani-ue”