Chapter Text
"Catch me if ya can, Raph!"
The four young turtles ran around in the night, along the sidewalks of the city as rain poured down. The tutles were laughing and snickering, their noise drowned out by the rain, running without a single care in the world.
Leo, Mikey, Donnie and Raph were playing a game of tag, and the former three were currently being chased around by the latter, who reached out to them with outstretched arms and merry laughter. Leo kept on taunting Raph, while Donnie and Mikey zoomed forwards.
It was pretty fun; no human would be able to see them because of the darkness, and no human would hear them because of the rain.
Although the turtles were quite hesitant on going out the surface, considering Mikey's dislike for rain and Donnie not wanting his tech to become soaked, it was all resolved with bright raincoats for all of them...except Raph. He enjoyed the rain, and having a tough shell and equally tough scales meant he couldn't get a regular cold. Besides, he'd take a bath - not shower, bath - thrice every day, so he had quite the resistance.
Donnie and Mikey saw Leo unknowingly slowing down to stick his tongue out at Raph and make funny faces, and it was there they knew they had to ditch Leo and run for their lives. They giggled to themselves as they ran further from Leo and Raph, deciding to hide in a nearby bush for the meantime.
"Raph'll never see us here!" Mikey whispered, his voice trembling with excitement whilst Donnie peeked from their hiding spot.
"That is, if Leo doesn't get tagged by him already!" Donnie sounded equally excited; whether that was because he'd see his twin get defeated or it was just because of them game they were playing, Mikey couldn't figure out.
(He has his bets on the first option. Donnie was a caring brother, but to his twin? He could be an absolute menace.)
"Should we not be home by now?" A scratchy voice squeaked. It was Shelldon, Donnie's robot turtle companion, hovering midair right behind them.
"Nah, it'll be fine." Donnie waved him off, and Shelldon looked at him, scandalized.
"It's way past 10. You of all people should know this is a bad idea!"
"Aw, it's just for a few more minutes!" Mikey stared at the robot with puppy eyes. "Besides, we've all got raincoats to protect ourselves from the rain!"
With an angry huff, Shelldon reluctantly flew under Donnie's raincoat, not wanting to get more wet from the rain. It was a good thing Shelldon was pretty small, about half the size of Donnie's shell.
Soon enough, they could hear approaching footsteps splashing in the rain and the shrieks of Leo, pleading to be spared as he ran in terror, Raph in tow.
"No!! I'm too good to be tagged!!!"
"Tag! Yer it!"
Donnie and Mikey could barely hold back their laughter, keeping their hands in their mouths so as to not be found. But Leo had a keen eye, and he easily noticed the bright colours of their raincoats, just barely visible over the dark green.
"Found ya!"
"Ahh!"
Donnie and Mikey jumped out, the latter just avoiding Leo's hand, and made a mad dash for it, laughing alongside Raph as Leo chased them. Donnie was clutching Shelldon close to his plastron while they ran.
"Oh Donnie!"
"Don't even think about it Nardo!"
"This'll get us nowhere." Shelldon mumbled, utterly done with their nonsense. But Mikey didn't care, he was just happy he and his brothers were having so much fun. Sure, Mikey loved the lair, but going out to the surface was like a breath of fresh air, both figuratively and literally, considering how the sewers didn't have the most hygienic of atmosphere.
"We should split up!" Donnie shouted.
"Nuh-uh, sticking together sounds better." Raph protested, but was cut off when they saw Leo approaching.
"I'm gonna tag ya!"
"No ya aren't!"
Donnie ran to the left, near a small alleyway, causing Raph to begrudingly take the other direction, just by the local park. Mikey, unsure of where to go, just ran straight ahead, Leo in hot pursuit. He could hear the other call out for him, and while Mikey was giggling and constantly looking back, Leo noticed a small cave-in up ahead.
...Right in front of where Mikey was heading.
"Mikey, look out!" Leo screamed, his teasing voice turning to horror as his baby brother approached it even more.
"Huh? Wh-" Mikey turned around, but it was too late; his foot slipped on a rock, and he found himself tumbling down into darkness against trash and other unknown material. He didn't even have time to react, to retract into his shell or jump out the way. He felt like he was falling for eternity, until he eventually landed on what seemed to be concrete.
He felt a sharp pain in his left foot, and saw that it got bruised in the fall. He clutched his sides, breathing heavily. His foot hurt bad, and he could see nothing at all. He hated the darkness, and the only source of faint light was from the surface, from where he just fell. So he stayed there, unmoving and frozen in fear.
He could see a blurry figure, and judging by the blue raincoat it was Leo.
"Mikey! Are you alright?" His older brother's voice echoed.
"Yeah! Sorta..." Mikey shouted back. God, now his shell started to ache too.
"Don't worry! Your big bros will get ya outta there! Just wait!" Leo ran off, and a sinking feeling settled in Mikey as he looked back at the darkness. Now that he calmed down a little after the fall, he could make out various structures such as boxes and old, broken furniture in the dim light.
He shuddered, thinking of all the monsters that could be hiding there. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to watch scary movies with Leo and Raph...
He heard muffled shouting from above. Those must be Raph and Donnie!
"Mikey, are you there?" Donnie called out to him, and although he couldn't see it, he could tell Donnie was using a flashlight based on the extra amount of light.
"Yeah, 'm here."
"Great. Okay, do you have any injuries?"
"Uhh...I think I sprained my foot?"
He could practically hear Raph's gasp; out of the four, the snapping turtle was the most protective and would already be by his brother's side if they got even a papercut.
"Alright. Stay calm, we'll find a way to get you out of here."
"Can't we just go down?" Mikey heard Leo ask.
"No, Nardo. This seems way too deep of a cave-in, and who knows how dangerous it can be?"
"We can handle it, probably."
"...We're 8 years old."
"Exactly!"
Mikey couldn't help but snort when he heard his softshell brother sigh in irritation. Leo and Donnie, being twins, were both 8, while Raph was 9. Mikey was the youngest, only a measly 6 years old. No wonder he was the most energetic out of all of them.
Man, he wished he had his stuffed toy with him now. Despite wanting to, he couldn't retract into his shell, knowing he wouldn't be able to hear his brothers clearly if he did.
"Alright Mikey, I'm sending Shelldon down there. Shelldon!"
A few moments later, and a soft whirr could be heard as Shelldon slowly descended, his purple metal being the only patch of colour apart from Mikey himself in the darkness. He flashed a bright, white light, and Mikey could see a broken television not too far from him. Shelldon was carrying what seemed to be Donnie's battleshell.
Donnie's voice buzzed from Shelldon's comm. "Shelldon will watch over you and help treat your injury. I've also sent an extra battleshell over for you to protect yourself with, but it might be a bit too big. If something happens, contact me through this comm."
"Your battleshell?-"
"Don't worry. I have mine right here. I made an extra in case I lost my current one, and I'm sending that one right over to you."
Well, that explained the battleshell Shelldon was carrying.
Mikey shivered. "But where will you go?"
"We're gonna get help. All our stuff is back at the lair, and- and we'll get Dad too."
"A-alright..." Mikey tried to fight the urge to cry then and there. He hated being alone, seperated from his brothers. It made him feel weak and vunerable, especially since he was the smallest in terms of age and size. "Please hurry, I don't like it here..."
"I know Mikey. We'll be there as fast as we can."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
With that the comm shut down, and Mikey was left with Shelldon, who didn't seem too surprised with what happened but was equally concerned.
"Told him this would happen." Shelldon sighed in what was annoyance, and quickly flew over to put the battleshell on Mikey.
"Oof- stop squirming so much!"
"Sorry." Mikey apologized, not caring to hide his sheepish grin. The battleshell was quite awkward to wear; it was a little bigger and more rectangular than his own shell, which was small and more curved. It even had smaller rectangles on it which reminded the tot of a mango. Still, Shelldon tried to make it fit with the shell's strap, and that seemed to work a little, making the shell less loose for Mikey.
"Show me your foot." Shelldon said, after helping Mikey with the shell. Mikey did so, lifting his left foot up so Shelldon could inspect the injury.
"Can you walk?"
"I-I think so?"
A few moments passed, and Shelldon treated the wound, finishing it up by wrapping it up with bandages. Mikey insteantly felt better by about a hundred times.
"Woah, you did it so fast! It's like you have magic!" He gasped in awe.
"Well, Donnie did create me, so I'm naturally programmed to know about these things. However, other things I learn myself." Shelldon said, a little pride in his voice.
"That's so cool. I should tell Donnie to make you a friend! I'd call him Mango!"
"Absolutely not."
Mikey enveloped Shelldon in a tight hug, thanking him for helpong with his little bruise. Although taken aback, Mikey could tell Shelldon liked the hug, judging by how he relaxed and leaned to Mikey, his engines whirring softly.
That sweet moment was ruined when they heard something clatter to the ground, and immediately Shelldon went on the defensive, pointing his light and aiming a missile at the source of the sound while Mikey hid behind him.
Turns out a small radio had fell from one of the boxes. Mikey sighed in relief, but Shelldon was far from relaxed.
"Something's here with us." He uttered, scanning the area.
"What? You can see them?" Mikey questioned.
"Something caused that radio to fall, and the sound it made when it fell is enough to know that it wasn't the wind that knocked it over."
Mikey only looked at Shelldon in awe. He was so smart, just like Donnie!
I wish I was that smart too!
Another clang, and this time it was a crowbar that had fell. Mikey squeaked, and Shelldon quickly glanced around the room.
Until they saw it.
Shelldon's light fell on a creature, it's skin pink and having tentacles akin to that of an octopus. It turned to Shelldon and Mikey with toxic green eyes, and screeched.
It leapt at Shelldon, but was quickly deflected when the hovering robot smacked it to the side with a mallet from his shell. The organism shrieked, baring it's sharp, needle-like teeth, before scuttling away.
"What. was that." Mikey was shaking now, utterly horrified by what he saw. He couldn't move his hands or legs, fear having frozen him in his place.
"Some alien lifeform, I suppose." The mallet retracted back into Shelldon's shell. "It's hostile. We should get moving."
"What- no! Donnie and the others said they'd come!" But Shelldon was already hovering forward, already heading towards what seemed like a passageway.
"We can't stay in one place forever." Shelldon said sternly, scanning the doorway. "There's most likely more of that...thing, and it probably has told the others by then. We need to keep moving."
Mikey hesitated, looking back to where the pink creature once stood. If that was true...if there were more of those things...then they couldn't stay here at all.
But then, what will his brothers do? How will they react once they realize their little brother went to another place, and there was no way of finding him?
He silently hopes they wouldn't leave him, if that were the case.
"Now come follow me, I found a small passageway here."
Mikey shook his head, ridding himself of all the bad thoughts and possibilities that could happen, and walked to where Shelldon was hovering. It was a small tunnel, and at the end of it Mikey could see a doorway.
He took in a deep breath.
You can do this, Mikey.
And he walked through the tunnel.
-
-
Meanwhile, above the surface, Mikey's brothers were panicking.
"We need to ask Dad for help." Donnie said as the trio ran to the direction of their home.
"But we'd get into so much trouble!" Leo cried. "Not to mention the fact we stayed up late and snuck out!"
"I don't care. Our little brother's stuck down that hellhole-"
"Language, Donnie!" Raph scolded.
"-and is probably scared right now! And my battleshell and Shelldon won't be able to protect him for too long if a major threat appears! Mikey's life could be at stake at this very moment, and we'd never know unless Shelldon comms me!"
"I have to agree with Donnie." Raph hummed. As much as he agreed with Leo too, Donnie's made much more sense; they were all still kids, what could they do alone to save their little brother?
Raph shuddered as the image of Mikey crying appeared in his mind, a beaten Shelldon in his arms as a big shadow loomed over them. A shadow of a terrible beast that neither of them could stop. It made his heart pang with guilt.
This was his fault. If he hadn't suggested playing tag in the first place, they wouldn't be in this mess at all. They'd be at home, snuggling to sleep or watching a late-night movie, not running home in the rain at 10:00pm with a missing brother.
"...you're right." Leo sounded defeated. "But if something dares to even lay a scratch on Mikey, I swear, I'll tear their head off!"
You and me, Nardo. You and me both. Donnie thought.
As they reached the manhole that led to the sewers home, Donnie silently prayed to whatever god was out there watching.
Please, let my baby brother be safe.