Chapter Text
Baron Draxum balanced himself on the crumbling wall, watching as all his experiments ran out of the building.
Running to get away from him.
He looked forward, seeing a human covered in green ooze. It was a human taking his experiments with him, away from the Baron's intended destiny. The destiny he believed was the only way to protect his people.
Draxum was furious. There were many things he thought he knew. He knew how humans were. He knew them as heartless fighters. He knew them as the ones who drove his entire species off of the surface.
He just didn’t know Lou Jitsu would care for the experiments.
The Baron stumbled as he slowly walked around his burning lab. All his work, everything he’s done was now gone into shambles. He didn’t even have his warriors.
Just then, he heard a sound.
Crying.
Not like an animal's cry nor a grown adults. It was like a typical baby yokai.
Draxum perked up. He dashed to the source of the noise at once, ignoring the pain and anger he had previously felt. If this was one of the turtles, he still had a chance. He kneeled at the spot, picking up rocks and debris.
There lay one of the turtles. It had purple, pixel-like markings on its body. The Baron picked it up, stroking its shell in an attempt to get it to be quiet.
It worked.
Draxum found the shell odd, though. It felt softer than what he’d expected a shell to be. This turtle wasn’t as fit for defense as he thought. Draxum sighed. He hoped it could at least make up that weakness for something else. The Baron looked at the reptile in his hand. It had been snuggling against his finger. He stared for a small moment, thinking which turtle this one could be.
“Three.” The Baron mumbled.
A piece of metal fell next to him, causing the turtle to begin crying again. The Baron looked around himself quickly, yelling for the gargoyles he recently got.
The two goyles flew quickly towards him, picking him up by the shoulders and carrying him out of the collapsing building.
Draxum sighed as he looked at his now-demolished building. His goyles began to say something about Lou Jitsu. How sorry they were he destroyed his lab. Draxum attempted to clench his fist, but then remembered the turtle in his hands.
Huginn flew over to the crying turtle, “Oh! Lou Jitsu left one!”
“He did. It’s a good thing the rubble didn’t crush it. It seems the mutation worked, as well.” The Baron looked back up at his old lab. “It’ll take years to rebuild!” Draxum looked back at the goyles, handing the turtle to Huginn. “I must gather as many things as I can from the debris. You two, sit down. Do not let the experiment escape.” The Baron began to walk away.
Muninn poked the turtle in confusion, “Do we call it anything?”
Draxum sighed and turned around, “Call it Three. You shouldn’t get attached.” He then sped up his walk, heading at least 15 feet away from the goyles, seated on the floor.
Huginn pat the turtle's head. “It’s tiny. Do you think Draxum could turn it into a warrior?”
Muninn shrugged. “No idea! But I think we should give it a nickname!”
“But the Baron just said–”
“Yeah, but wasn’t Zane from camp's real name, like, X Æ A-Xii? I feel like we should just give it a nickname cuz growing up with a name that’s a number is just– no.”
Huginn sighed, “Yeah, but let’s make it relatively close to Three. We don’t want to get in trouble in case the Baron hears one of us call it something like ‘Wilbur.’
The goyles thought for a moment. Muninn finally spoke up.
“How ‘bout Dee?”
Huginn shrugged, “Yeah, that works.”