Chapter Text
Mikey points to himself, “Miiikeyyyy. Mikey.”
The turtle’s eyes narrow and Mikey’s sure he would be growling if there wasn’t a gag in his mouth. His hands pull apart, trying to get the chains off. Mikey sighs.
“Stop teasing him, Micheal. He can’t talk behind that gag,” Donnie sighs, tapping away at their wrist pad.
“Then can we take it offffff?” Mikey whines, “This is boringgggg.”
Donnie rolls their eyes, “Do you want him to alert the big guy and have to start running again?” Mikey doesn’t answer, “That’s what I thought.”
Mikey folds his arms and huffs. He falls backwards onto his shell, arms spread wide, “Can we do somethinggggg? Why do we have to sit around?”
“Because,” Donnie hisses, irritated, “we don’t want-“
A large grumble echoes throughout the sewer ‘cave’ they were sheltered in.
Donnie sighs, rubbing the bridge of their beak, “Micheal. There are snacks in my shell.”
“That wasn’t me,” Mikey answers, sat up with his legs crossed and holding his ankles. Mikey rocks back and forth, watching the other turtle, “It was him.”
Donnie turns to look at the other turtle. He hisses, teeth gnashing around the gag. Donnie notices how his bound hands hover over his stomach area.
“He’s starving,” Donnie notes, looking at the way his bones show.
Mikey immediately pops an arm into Donnie’s battle shell and pulls out a packet of pizza balls, “I made these earlier as a snack,” he tells the other turtle and opens the pack, picking up one and holding it in his open palm, “Here. Take it.”
Donnie opens their mouth, probably to tell Mikey that such a task will be difficult for the chained up turtle, but a loud growl followed by a bang and the old sewer tunnels shaking interrupts them. Donnie and Mikey tense, listening. The chained up turtle makes the most of the distraction and lurches forward at Mikey.
Their eyes widen and Donnie moves to tackle the turtle, but they are too slow. To their confusion, the turtle just throws himself backwards almost immediately.
Mikey blinks at his now empty hand, “I guess he really is hungry.”
They watch the turtle manoeuvre his chained wrists and head so he can sniff the pizza ball.
“He’s fast,” Donnie notes, confusion colouring their voice, “We shouldn’t have been able to catch him.”
Mikey glances at Donnie, before looking at the turtle glaring at the pizza ball, “Maybe he wanted to get caught?”
Mikey approaches the turtle, hands raised to show that he means no harm, making the turtle flinch backwards and cower, trying to force his way through the wall behind him. Another bang startles the turtle away from the wall and towards Mikey, who wraps an arm around him, making him screech behind the gag and flail. Mikey frowns, ignoring the elbows thrown his way, hating how easy it is to restrain the starving turtle with one arm. Mikey isn’t much shorter than this turtle, but it is a large reminder that food must not be easy to come by here.
“Micheal,” Donnie warns, but doesn’t move to stop their little brother.
Mikey just focuses on untying the gag with one hand, “There you go,” he releases the turtle, who tries to scramble away from Mikey, but the turtle’s chained legs make that difficult, so Mikey moves to give him space, pulling out another pizza ball, “You dropped-“
Mikey watches as the turtle picks up and swallows the pizza ball that had fallen on the sewer floor. He can’t help but cringe, hoping the turtle doesn’t get sick. Still, Mikey can’t help but break out into a large grin at the little turtle’s face, as the turtle lets out happy chirps.
“Did you like that?” Mikey coos, “Was it good?”
Donnie rolls their eyes, “He’s not a-“
“Gooood,” the turtle nods at Mikey.
Mikey and Donnie freeze. Their eyes go wide and they exchange a look. They break out into the same ecstatic, crazy grins.
There’s another bang and more of the roof crumbles.
The grins die.
“Soooo,” Mikey drawls, holding out another pizza ball and loosening the chains slightly.
Donnie watches the turtle snatch and devour the food, chirping, “Soooo...”
“Can we keep him?” Mikey asks, sticking out his bottom lip and giving his best puppy dog eyes.
Donnie rolls their eyes, “We can’t keep a person.”
“But what if I promise to feed him and walk him and-“
Donnie facepalms, “He’s not a dog, Micheal.”
“But-but,” Mikey blubbers and motions to their surroundings with one hand, the other holding out another pizza ball, “Look around! It’s so dirty and there were comics so we could introduce him to movies and he’s starving- We can’t just leave him!”
“What choice do you think we have?” Donnie asks as another bang rings through the sewers, “The big guy isn’t going to let us leave, especially if we take his little friend. We need to find a way out.”
“I know,” Mikey sighs and smiles as the turtle takes another pizza ball, no longer backing away from Mikey as he does, “I just... I wish we could help him.”
“Owwwwtttt?” the turtle asks, his eye ridges furrowing, “Owt? Myyyyyy-eeee owt?”
Mikey turns his attention back to the turtle, “My-e? That’s me, right? You’re trying to say Miiii-keyyy?” Mikey points at his plastron.
The turtle nods, “Myyyy-Lee?”
Mikey’s grin grows, “Almost! Mi-key. Key.”
The turtle’s eyes narrow in concentration, “Myyykeyyyy. Mikey?” The turtle looks up at Mikey.
Mikey’s grin threatens to tear his face apart, “Yes! That’s me! Mikey!”
The turtle copies Mikey’s smile and points at him, “Mikey!” Then points at the ceiling, “Owt?”
Realisation hits them both.
“You know how to get out?” Donnie asks breathlessly.
The turtle nods, pointing up, “Owt.”
“He knows how to get out!” Donnie grins, laughter escaping his throat.
“You,” Mikey points at the turtle, “will help us,” Mikey gestures to himself and Donnie, “get out?” He points up.
The turtle nods.
Mikey stands up and approaches, removing the chains from around the turtle. He offers the turtle a hand. The turtle stares at it.
Mikey chuckles, “Right. You don’t know what this means,” Mikey turns to Donnie and offers them the hand, which Donnie takes, before turning back to the turtle and offering the hand again, “Here.”
The turtle takes it, letting Mikey pull him up. Mikey smiles at the turtle and the turtle imitates him, with his own grin. Another bang shakes the sewers.
“Your friend is looking for you,” Mikey says, “He seems worried.”
He looks at the turtle, but he just frowns, glaring in the direction the noise was loudest. The turtle looks back at Mikey and Donnie. His head tilts as he observes their worried faces. He grabs Mikey’s wrist and pulls him behind him.
“W-wait! Where are we going?” Mikey asks, letting the turtle pull him along, Donnie following close behind, “Come on! Where are we going?”
The turtle glances back at Mikey, before turning his gaze back to the sewers, speeding up slightly at the louder sounding roars, “Owt,” is all he says.
These sewers are big and damaged. Mikey has lost his way seven times already. At least he knows Donnie has a way to retrace their steps. The turtle stops suddenly, making Mikey run into his shell. Donnie skids to a stop next to them.
The turtle lets out a hiss, making Mikey and Donnie jump back.
“Sorry,” Mikey apologises, but realises that the turtle isn’t hissing at him, but the wall, “What’s wrong?”
The turtle lets go of Mikey’s arm and stomps over to kick a pipe. Mikey stares at him confused.
Donnie’s eyes widen and they gasp, grabbing Mikey’s arm. They shake it and point at a place on the wall, “There was a pipe there. It was broken.”
Mikey feels cold realisation flood his veins, “You think the big guy broke it to keep us in?”
Donnie shakes their head, “No. The big guy would be guarding the exit. One of us could get the other out,” Donnie watches the turtle’s beak tremble and his eyes water, “He’s really upset about this.”
Mikey feels a little nauseous, “The big guy is trying to keep him here.”
Donnie nods, lips set in a tight line. They look at their battle shell. They can’t just fly them out. The hover wing was busted in the fall.
This situation sucks.
The growling and banging is closer now and both Mikey and Donnie flinch. The turtle turns back to them with a determined gaze and crouches. Mikey and Donnie realise that he is acting as a boost for them. Donnie chews their bottom lip.
Mikey hands the rest of the pizza balls back to the turtle, “We’ll come back and we’ll get you out, okay Leo?”
The turtle holds the gift tight and smiles at Mikey, letting both turtles use him as a boost. They watch him walk away, chirping the entire time, with sad eyes, before making their trek to the surface.
“Leo?” Donnie can’t help but ask.
Mikey shrugs, “He’s a mutant turtle like us and I don’t want to just call him ‘turtle’. It fits. It’s short for Leonardo.”
Donnie shakes their head and chuckles, “Michelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo. What’s next? Galileo?”
Mikey pulls a face at that, “Nahhh. That doesn’t fit the big guy.”
Donnie freezes for a millisecond, but chooses to ignore the younger turtle. Mikey always believes anyone can be a good person.