Chapter Text
“We are not taking Klunk with us to fight bad guys.” Mikey’s voice was flat, and he had a fairly unimpressed look on his face. “He’s a cat, not a ninja.”
“I’m not saying we take him on every mission or anything. I’m just saying having a magic cat as a backup plan isn’t a bad thing.” Leo’s face scrunched up, leaning back and waving a hand in the air to clear away the fur from his face.
Mikey was currently brushing out Klunk’s fur, the cat sitting perfectly still and with an equally unimpressed look on his face. He tilted his head at Leo when the turtle opened his mouth to speak again.
Leo pouted slightly at that, but paused before continuing, “He can fit in places we can’t, his fire can melt metal , and no one would ever expect a cat .”
“What are you talking about?” Donnie paused, walking past the two in the living room area, staring at the two seated on the floor with Klunk between them.
Mikey shrugged, carrying on grooming Klunk. “Leo wants to start bringing Klunk out with us.” Klunk meowed, standing and stretching before going to rub against Donnie’s leg.
“Not every time! And not actually taking him! We can just use a portal to grab him.” Leo threw up his arms, flopping backwards on the floor. “Plus, Klunk is super smart! He’d understand if we asked him.”
Klunk meowed, tail swishing before trotting back to stare down at Leo. Leo smirked, reaching up to offer a hand for the cat “See? He’d totally make a great addition.”
Klunk merely placed a paw on Leo’s forehead, ears twitching, before looking over towards the door. Leo’s face fell a bit at that, and he stared at the cat.
Mikey laughed, picking up the brush and fur “He’s a smart kitty that’s for sure. But he also likes to do his own thing.”
“We don’t use Mayhem for anything like that?” Donnie added, staring down at his twin with a raised brow.
“Mayhem lives with April, and I wouldn’t mind asking him for more help too.” Leo offered, confusion over taking his features as Klunk suddenly dashed off.
They heard Raph yelp from just beyond the door, and a moment later the snapping turtle came in looking sheepish. He rubbed the back of his head, admitting sheepishly at his brother’s confused looks, “I wasn’t payin’ attention. I would’ve probably ran into the door if Klunk didn’t… Ya know.”
Mikey laughed at that, leaning down to give the cat a quick pet before returning to his task. The black cat shadowed the box turtle as he finished cleaning up.
“I don’t get how he always knows these things.” Donnie moved to help Leo up.
“I just mark it up to yokai stuff.” Mikey shrugged, leaning down to pick Klunk up, laughing when the cat pushed up to rub his head against Mikey’s chin. “We could find out about it soon, though. I asked Barry to come by to look him over.”
“You asked Draxum to come check out your cat?” Leo looked confused, sharing a look with Donnie, who merely shrugged “Why?”
“D’s pretty sure that Klunk’s not a mutant, and if he’s a yokai cat, Draxum will know if we need to do anything special for him.”
“Should we have asked Draxum about Mayhem?” Raph leaned against the door frame “I mean he’s a yokai, too.”
“Mayhem stays with April, though, and he’s been fine since she took him in.” Donnie glanced down at his wrist “Draxum also just hit the main door, Mikey.”
“Sweet!” Mikey readjusted his hold on Klunk and started moving towards the entrance “We can ask him now? Or mention it, at least if he can help out with Klunk.”
The turtles as a group made their way to meet Draxum, who looked fairly put out about having to come by for a visit.
“Alright, what mystical or mutant problem have you boys managed to get yourselves into now?” Draxum’s voice was rough, and he had his arms crossed over his chest.
“What did you tell him when you asked him to come over?” Raph looked down at Mikey, face exasperated, as he had a guess at how little information Mikey had likely given.
“Just that we had questions on a possible yokai thing!” Mikey protested before grinning and moving to hold Klunk under his front two legs, letting the rest of the cat dangle. “And this Barry is Klunk! He’s who I wanted to ask you about.”
Draxum stared for a few moments before sighing. “That… looks like a normal cat. Shouldn’t a normal human vet be able to assist?”
“We thought he was normal too until he shot off fire.” Leo leaned heavily against Raph, snickering at both the surprised look on Draxum and how Klunk was still just dangling.
“He… shot fire?” Draxum leaned down to look closer at the black cat, face taking on a more speculative look.
“Yeah! He can raise his own temp, too!” Mikey held Klunk out a little closer to Draxum. Klunk leaned his head back to get a better look at the turtle, meowing once before looking back at Draxum. “Oh, right. Klunk, this is Baron Draxum. He’s our other dad who was responsible for creating us!”
There was a small wince at that statement, mostly at how blunt it was. Klunk’s tail swished as he looked at Draxum. “Alright, so I can understand why you called me. How did you even find him?”
“He was just out in normal New York. Something hurt him, and I brought him here to get better.” Mikey shrugged, pulling Klunk close and holding the cat so he could pet him. “I didn’t know he wasn’t a normal cat then. It’s worked out, though. I just wanted to make sure he didn’t need anything special?”
“I’m not an expert on animals like this. I’m an alchemist, not a vet.” Draxum leaned back, looking once again put out about having been called over “All I can tell you is that animals from the Hidden City will probably be more intelligent than a normal animal, and it will have some kind of ability. Which you have already learned from the sounds of it.”
“He’s also got this weird ability to know when something bad’s about to happen.” Leo piped up, eyeing the cat with some suspicion “It’s kind of creepy honestly.”
“Most yokai only have one ability naturally. And since he has the ability to generate fire without another catalyst, I am willing to say that is it. Have you considered that maybe the cat is just more observant than you are?” Draxum’s tone is dry, and his face is markedly unimpressed. The boys looked a little sheepish at that, and Draxum sighed, “If you want more information on the cat, I’m sure a pet shop would be more than able to help-”
“The Hidden City has a pet store?!” Mikey cut off Draxum, eyes glinting excitedly.
Draxum was taken aback, leaning back slightly “Er-Yes? The Hidden City has similar amenities to the human cities. You should have seen some of them on our last trip down there.”
“We weren’t exactly looking for something like a pet store, and some of us didn’t get the chance to explore as much as we would’ve liked.” Don’s voice was sardonic, and both Leo and Raph grimaced at the reminder.
“We can go now! We could even grab April to get stuff for Mayhem!” Mikey is practically bouncing in place now, Klunk quickly moving to the turtle's shoulders for better balance so he’s not jostled around so much. “Barry could show us around while we find it.”
“Last time we were all down there, it was kind of a lot.” Leo pointed out “I got conned, Raph had to run with thieves, April and Donnie released a troll, and Draxum got beat up by a kid.” Leo paused, arms held out in front of him “And the five of us got arrested!”
“Oh, yeah.” Mikey said, looking down before grinning “I wasn’t though!”
“You are not going to the Hidden City alone.” Raph immediately responded, cutting off that line of thought. “If we stick together and keep quiet, we can just go in, get what we need, and come back home.”
“I’m not going to say the probability of that happening.” Donnie’s comment was met with a glare from Raph, and Donnie merely shrugged in response.
“I can’t exactly go down myself. I’m still considered wanted.” Draxum pointed out, “Even if I did want to go down.”
“We don’t have the cloaking broach anymore, either.” Mikey thought it over, beaming once more “We can get you whatever you need! If we’re already going down, we can just get it all in one trip, right?”
“That… I wouldn’t be opposed to that.” Draxum admitted, thinking through what supplies the turtles could realistically get for him.
“Sweet! We’ll grab April pop into the Hidden City and be back before you know it!” Mikey grinned, taking Klunk off his shoulders and placing him into Draxum’s arms. “Keep an eye on Klunkers Barry! He’s a good cat, just needs someone to make sure he doesn’t sneak treats or find something in the sewers. Pops was not happy at his last ‘present’.”
Klunk made a noise that could almost be called offended, while Draxum sputtered, “N-now wait just a moment!”
Leo was smirking, already pulling off his Katana to make a portal “No can do Draxy, don’t want to run into the rush hours. Wouldn’t help with the lying low thing.”
“Shouldn’t the rat be the one taking care of this cat?” Draxum was holding Klunk as far away from himself as he could. His face soured further when he heard three of his boys snickering.
“Dad’s not home right now. He should be soon, though.” Raph offered somewhat placatingly before stepping through Leo’s portal.
“Just send what you need to the group chat and we’ll see what we can do.” Donnie held up his phone, waving once before following after Raph.
“I didn’t agree to this!” Draxum’s protest fell on deaf ears.
“Bye Barry! Bye Klunk! See you guys later!” Mikey gave a cheery wave before disappearing through the portal. Leo only snickered before following, portal closing behind him and leaving Draxum standing dumbfounded and holding a cat.
Draxum stares at Klunk, who stares back for a few moments. Klunk’s tail swishes a few times before twisting slightly to jump down to the ground.
Klunk looks back at the goat yokai and meows once before dashing off further into the lair.
Draxum sighs, and feels that it’s going to feel twice as long than however long the boys will actually be gone.
It had only been thirty minutes, and Draxum was beginning to regret this more and more.
He’d sent off a list of items to the kids, pointedly ignoring the texts the boys had sent to April about the turn of events. Then he’d decided to take a quick look around, see how the family’s home had progressed in the past few months.
He’d even taken a quick look at the new projects Donatello had started. Draxum would claim that it was just a mutual interest in science. He would deny the pride swelled in his chest, and that he was making sure that everything was safe. Not like the other boys or the rat would quite be able to tell how dangerous some of the things the Soft-shell turtle could make could be.
His problem, though, was that the darned cat was tailing him every step of the way, minus his brief look into the lab. However, the cat did hiss at him for that one.
Klunk was never more than five steps behind Draxum, making sure that whenever Draxum stopped, he stopped within Draxum’s line of sight. It was unnerving in a way that made Draxum understand why the turtles had mentioned the cat’s slightly ‘creepy’ behavior.
They were exaggerating a bit in Draxum’s opinion, but the thought wasn’t completely unfounded, at least.
Draxum moved into the kitchen, grabbing something to drink from the fridge. He looked down, brow raising when he noticed the cat missing from his side. Casting a glance around the room did not reveal the cat’s location either, and it was mildly concerning.
Draxum got the distinct feeling of eyes staring at him, and he looked towards the door, half expecting the rat to be there. There was no one there, though, and taking a sip from the drink he’d made himself, and continued to look around.
He almost spat out his drink when he looked up on a hunch towards the top of the fridge. Sitting there at the top was Klunk, staring down with a twitching ear before leaning over and turning his head until he was almost looking at Draxum upside down.
Draxum stared back, blinking and trying to figure out how the creature had managed to slip past him and get on top of the fridge without making any noise.
Klunk stared at him for another moment before jumping down, barely brushing against Draxum’s leg before trotting into the living room area.
The sheep yokai guessed he was meant to follow, but the only thing he could think was that the boys or Lou Jitsu had better return soon.
At an hour, Draxum was tempted to text the kids and tell them to forget about picking up his things.
He’d been sitting on the couch in silence, with Klunk sitting on the coffee table, just staring at him.
Draxum stared back, gauging the reaction of the cat when he leaned forward.
Klunk merely blinked, head tilting to the side as his tail swished.
“Alright, you are a bigger enigma than previously expected.” Draxum laces his hands together, elbows resting against his legs. “I do have to ask though, given my previous experiences, are you one of the council’s various spies?”
Klunk’s ears flicked backward once before he started cleaning one of his paws.
Draxum’s face changed from blank to unimpressed and he sighed, leaning back once more “Well, that is not conclusive.” He crossed his arms “If you are one, I must warn you it won’t end well if you attempt to use any information you’ve happened to gather from the turtles.”
“Are you interrogating the cat?” Splinter’s voice was startlingly loud.
Draxum jolted, head snapping, to look at Splinter, who had finally returned.
Klunk meowed, jumping down and moving to weave between Splinter’s legs and purring all the while.
“Yes, yes. I am happy to see you as well, Klunk.” Splinter leaned down, scratching behind the cat’s ears before standing straight again. He eyes Draxum, a brow raised and suspicion clear in his voice “Now why are you interrogating the cat? And where are the boys?”
“I wasn’t interrogating the cat.” Draxum put air quotes around the word interrogating “And the boys are out in the Hidden City to get supplies for your newest menace.”
“How long ago did they leave?” Splinter is moving further into the living room “Surely it can’t take that long to pick up a few more supplies for an animal. We had all the necessities already.”
“They’ve been gone a bit over an hour, and they were running an extra errand for me.” Draxum stood, shrugging “Shouldn’t be much longer.” At that moment, both men’s phones pinged with a new message.
They shared a glance before Splinter played the video Leonardo had sent them.
“Hey Dad! Hey Draxy! Sooo, we ran into some trouble down here. It’s nothing major!” Leo’s reassurance was undercut by what sounded suspiciously like an explosion. “It will make us a little late, but it’s all good!”
They could hear April yelling something indistinct, which Leo took a quick glance towards “Okay maybe not good right now, but we got this!” Raph is yelling at Leo now to ‘Get your shell back here!’ while something went flying behind the turtle. Leo winced, before putting on a charming smile “We’ll be back soon! Love you guys! Buh-Bye!”
The message ended by cutting off April’s voice mid yell, and both adults looked at one another, processing what they had just witnessed.
“They are truly menaces.” Draxum sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“They certainly do have a way of getting into trouble.” Splinter couldn’t help but agree, ears pinned back as his tail swished.
“Well, now that you’re back, I can take my leave. I only stayed because they foisted the cat off on me. “Draxum waved a dismissive hand, moving back towards the entrance “You can tell the kids I’ll come back for whatever they managed to get me, or we can work out a time for them to run by and drop it off.”
“Yes, thank you for watching over Orange’s cat. I’m sure he is very grateful for it.” Splinter gave a wave, voice sounding more cheery as he spoke to Klunk “Now Klunk, how about you come with me to wait for the boys?”
There was a beat of silence “Klunk?”
Draxum paused in the doorway, turning to look back and seeing Splinter looking around the room. Draxum then noticed that there was no little shadow sitting at either of their feet.
A quick look into the other rooms, and Splinter’s attempts to get the cat to come to them with treats yielded no sign of the cat.
Both men looked at each other before looking out towards the entrance.
“I hope you don’t mind staying longer, Draxum, because I do not want to search for this cat alone.”
“Doesn’t Donatello put trackers on all of you?” Draxum asked at the twenty-minute mark of their search.
“He does, but I do not have access to that. Nor do I know how to use it.” Splinter’s ears twitched, listening for any sound that could indicate where Klunk was. “And Klunk can’t have gotten that far. He normally shows up not too long after leaving, but after last time… I’d rather not have a repeat.”
Draxum let out a sharp laugh at that. “What? You lived down here for years. I doubt anything a cat could bring back as a ‘present’ could be much worse than what you would’ve found.”
“You would be surprised.” Splinter muttered, a shudder going down his spine. “But no, our new fuzzball did not bring back anything too concerning in that respect. He brought back a pigeon.”
“A pigeon?” The yokai’s brow rose, disbelief evident in his voice.
“Yes, I don’t know where he got it, but it was still alive and relatively unharmed. After Klunk put it down, it started flying around and making a mess!” Splinter’s tail swept harshly against the ground “Took forever to catch the bird and get back topside.”
“How did a bird even get down here?” Draxum glanced down one of the side tunnels, shaking the treat bag Splinter had given him. “Was it normal?”
“That one leads to a dead end. If he was there, he would’ve come by now.” Splinter stated offhandedly before nodding “Purple made sure before we released it. The other boys nicknamed it Pete for some reason.”
Draxum hummed, following after the mutant “Maybe the boys are right that there’s something more to this cat.”
“He has quite the uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time.” Splinter agreed, pausing as his ear twitched in one direction “Wait… Did you hear that?”
The yokai stilled, ears straining to listen for any noises. Faintly, he heard a jingling sound further down the tunnel.
Both quickly moved in the direction of the sound. Slowing down when they got closer to not startle Klunk.
The sight that greeted them was certainly an odd one.
Klunk was leaning over the edge of the walkway, staring at the water intently before lashing out with a paw to grab at something. Once he pulled it close enough, his head ducked down towards the water.
“No! You do not know what is there! It’s filthy!” Splinter yelled and both he and Draxum darted forward to grab the cat.
Draxum shot one of his vines out, having it wrap carefully around Klunk’s midsection and pulling him back from the water.
“What did you grab?!” Splinter has his arms out for Draxum to lower the cat into, focusing on the object dangling from Klunk’s mouth.
Klunk made a noise of discontent, wiggling until he was lowered to the ground and dropping his catch carefully.
Three sets of eyes watched as the Klunk’s catch began to flail, getting back to its feet and cooing as it tried to hop away.
“That is…. A pigeon.” Draxum sounded as dumbfounded as he felt, watching the bird for another moment before looking back at Splinter.
Splinter looked just as stunned, nodding as he looked towards Klunk “It is. I believe it is even the same pigeon as last time.”
The bird hopped back towards the edge of the walkway, wobbling dangerously back towards the water. Klunk made a chittering noise before carefully placing a paw on the bird’s tail feathers, keeping it from falling back in.
“How could he have possibly known that this bird was even here?” Splinter’s question hangs in the air for a moment before both he and Draxum sighed. “We should… clean it up and take it back up to the surface.” Splinter pinched the bridge of his nose “Again.”
Draxum grunted, using one of his vines to carefully pick up the bird and making sure it couldn’t squirm away. “I am not touching it until we at least rinse it off.”
Klunk meowed what sounded like an agreement, face looking as close to disgust as it could as he trotted behind them.
Draxum and Splinter managed to rinse off any sludge off the pigeon, fairly painlessly all while Klunk supervised, gently batting the bird back into place whenever it tried to hop away.
Currently, the pigeon was air drying and pecking at the table it was set on while Klunk kept it in place.
A loud chorus of voices broke the peace that had settled over the lair at the entryway. Three heads turned to look, watching as the boys walked in. Raph and Donnie were holding bags, while Mikey was riding piggyback with Leo.
They were a little bruised, and a little dirty, but they were smiling and laughing, so all three relaxed.
“We’re home!” Raph called out, grinning proudly as he set the bags down “And the Mad Dogz saved another day!”
Klunk left the pigeon’s side, going to rub against all four turtles’ ankles as a way of greeting. Mikey slipped off of Leo’s back, reaching down to pick the cat up as Leo noticed the bird now hopping on the table “Pete’s back?”
The other three looked at the bird before glancing at the two adults, who only stared back.
“Why is Pete back?” Donnie’s brow was raised before a disgusted look came over him as the pigeon attempted to eat a stray thread from a kitchen towel.
Draxum merely shooed the bird away from the strand, while Splinter asked, “What did you boys get up to in the Hidden City?”
All four turtles shared a guilty glance before Leo strode forward, grinning as he gestured to the bags “We got the pet supplies! And a good chunk of your list, Draxum! The details aren’t really important.” He tilted his head towards the pigeon “We have to take Pete back up?”
“The bird’s feathers aren’t done drying yet, but soon.” Draxum responded, letting the boys take the out they made for themselves.
“You have a good time with Barry, Klunk?” Mikey’s question caused both Splinter and Draxum to share a similar guilty look. Leo, Raph, and Donnie snickered at that while Mike’s focus was on Klunk, who meowed, looking quite satisfied with himself.
“Where’s O’Neil? I thought you were taking her with you?” Draxum asked, once more using a vine to hold the pigeon before it managed to topple itself off the table.
“We did. She wanted to go clean up and spoil Mayhem a bit with some stuff she got for him.” Raph glanced over his shoulder, sorting through the bags.
Klunk jumped from Mikey to Raph, leaning forward to sniff at one of the bags.
“I’m gonna feed you in a bit! You can wait for your new treats!” Mikey called out, moving back towards the kitchen.
Klunk gave a call in response, but leaned back and sat still on Raph’s shoulder.
“You staying for dinner, Draxum?” Leo asked, taking a seat at the table and watching Pete scratching now at the towel.
“I wasn’t exactly expecting to…” The feeling of eyes on him became strong again, and a glance showed Klunk staring again, head tilted in one direction “But, I suppose I can…”
Mikey gave a cheer from further back in the room, Raph had a grin on his face, and both Don and Leo had smirks on their faces while Splinter quietly sniggered.
Klunk’s tail swished, and it irked Draxum how smug the cat managed to look.
Hours later, after they had released Pete and dinners had been eaten, Draxum merely observed how the family had made space for Klunk. Keeping an eye on them as he mingled longer than originally intended.
Though perhaps it was more appropriate to say how Klunk had made his own space with each of them.
Donatello had the cat first for the night, Klunk sitting at the edge of schematics and pushing back pens and pencils whenever they strayed too far from the turtle's reach. When Donatello had gathered his things and left, giving one a few scritches under the cat’s chin before retreating to start building.
Klunk then moved on to Leonardo, which was amusing in its own way. It seemed that Leonardo was attempting to teach the cat how to skateboard, to dubious results. So far, Klunk would only sit on the board while Leonardo pushed it but doing nothing to assist. Afterwards, the turtle moved on to more average forms of play for felines, cheering whenever Klunk pulled off an impressive pounce or jump. Somehow, Leo had managed to teach the cat fetch as well, which ended up being most of the play time.
When Klunk tired of that, he moved on to sit on the arm of Splinter’s chair, sitting still and meowing in agreement to Splinter’s comments on the commercial that played. Splinter, for his part, laughed at Klunk’s comments, reaching out to rub at the cat’s ears when the show started back up. Klunk reacted just as much as Splinter did, watching till near the end of the show before moving on.
Raph got cuddle time, apparently. Klunk immediately hopped into the snapper’s lap, curling up and purring, when one big hand reached down to start petting him. Raphael started cooing over Klunk, putting the comic down for a few moments to focus on the cat before picking it back up. One hand continuously stroking along the cat’s back and reading with the other, while Klunk stretched out on the turtle’s lap and purr only getting louder.
After a while of that, Klunk stretched and stood up, rubbing his head under Raphael’s chin before trotting off towards Michelangelo.
Klunk had kept his demeanor and poise with all the others, even when Leo was playing with him, but he immediately flopped down on his back, wiggling around pressing against Mikey’s side where he laid on the floor. Michelangelo paused the game he’d been playing, laughing as he started petting Klunk, the cat pressing up into the hand. Klunk moved to lay on Mikey’s shell, letting the turtle return to his game, and occasionally nuzzling his head against Mikey’s or reaching out with a paw to tap at the screen or button when Mikey offered the system up.
Draxum felt he had lingered too long now, nodding once to himself and gathering his things. A jingle nearby made Draxum pause, looking down and seeing Klunk staring up at him. Klunk’s head tilted to one side, and his tail swished as Draxum raised a brow.
“I suppose my earlier concerns have been put to rest.” Draxum conceded “I don’t quite know what your whole situation is or what you are doing, but I believe you have no ill intentions towards the turtles or Jitsu.”
Klunk meowed, getting up and moving to rub against Draxum’s legs, a quiet purr rumbling in his chest.
Draxum didn’t quite know how to react to that, but was saved from any embarrassment by Mikey coming in. “Aww, look at that! Klunk took you pretty quick Barry!”
“I suppose so.” Draxum stared down at Klunk, who only looked back up with wide eyes. He sighed, reaching down to pet Klunk with a small smile growing on his face.
“I should get going, though. I do have work tomorrow.” Draxum pointedly ignored any cooing or sniggering he heard. “Thank you, boys, for shopping for me. Until the next time you inevitably decide to bother me.”
He got a chorus of goodbyes, and even a few meows, as he made his way out of the lair.
The boys had gotten quite lucky in the latest addition to their family. Though Draxum was still curious about the coincidences with the cat.