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“Piebald!” Dad greets happily, hugging his daughter. “How is college?”
“Pretty good,” Piebald says with a hum. “My Exploratory Children’s Literature professor is a pompous muppet, but everything else is going great.”
“Wonderful to hear! Come in, we’re just finishing up the food.”
Orange lights up when he sees her from where he’s roasting green beans.
Piebald moves toward them, accidentally bumping into a yokai she doesn’t recognize. The yokai in question spins around, jumping violently when he sees the hooded fish mutant looming over him.
Piebald would feel bad, but it’s a little funny. Blue apparently thinks so as well- he cackles so loud it drowns out the yokai’s cursing.
“Oh!” Orange says excitedly, thrusting his skillet into the hands of a human Piebald also doesn’t recognize. (seeing a human here is a little nerve wracking, but she trusts that her father wouldn’t invite anyone who was a threat to Thanksgiving dinner)
“You haven’t met Dad yet!”
Piebald raises a brow.
“We have the same dad? I met him post-mutation before I met you? We collaborated on the Revenge-Flushing Incident? Ring any bells?”
Orange’s face flashes to the sheepishness he always wears whenever Piebald brings up that series of events, but he shakes it away quickly.
“No, that’s Pops. This is Dad!”
Orange gestures enthusiastically at the yokai (showing off the strange patterns reminiscent of shattered glass on his arms that definitely wasn’t there last time she visited), which Piebald can now see is a pink man who looks vaguely familiar.
“Who… is this?” The yokai asks Orange, looking Piebald up and down with an askance look.
“This is Piebald! She’s our sister!”
“Half-sister,” she corrects. She snorts at Orange’s hurt look. “I don’t want to be related to you morons any more than I have to be.”
“Fair enough,” Purple acknowledges from where he’s tinkering with a toaster. He also has the shattered-glass pattern, though it’s fainter and only on one arm. He also has strange circular wounds dotting his body, like someone attacked him with a pencil.
“She’s Pop’s goldfish who got mutated after Leo flushed her down the toilet,” Orange clarifies for the increasingly confused yokai.
“It was an accident!” Blue protests from the table. “When are you gonna stop bringing it up?”
“I dunno,” Orange shoots back. “When are you gonna stop bringing up the roof incident?”
“He did that on purpose!” Blue objects.
“Roof incident?” Piebald asks.
The yokai sighs.
“There was a point in time when…”
“You were goin’ around mutating random people,” Red offers, pulling a pumpkin pie from the oven with one massive hand. Yet another arm with shattered glass. One of his eyes seems cloudy as well.
“You were evil,” Purple supplies.
“Tryin’ to commit genocide and conquer the entire human race,” a female human Piebald failed to notice huffs, crossing her arms.
“Yes, yes,” the yokai says, waving his hand dismissively. “Irrelevant. We were at odds, one might say.”
“Pretty relevant to me,” Blue huffs sourly.
“Draxum threw Leo off a roof,” Red finally explains.
Fair enough. Blue is a dumbass.
Wait.
Waaait.
“Draxum? As in, Baron Draxum?”
“Oh, great,” Draxum (??) mutters.
“Yeah,” Orange confirms.
“Baron Draxum as in the #1 most wanted criminal in the Hidden City? That Baron Draxum?”
“Yeah,” Orange says again, firmer this time. “He created us, and he’s family.”
His tone leaves no room for argument.
“I mean…”
“Shut up, Leo.”
“Hey! Rude!”
A second human- a male - stares at her from where he’s still fumbling with the skillet Orange gave him.
“What,” Piebald croons, twisting herself towards the boy in a fashion she knows is extremely terrifying, “Something in my teeth?” She bares her razor-sharp fangs for extra effect.
“Stop scaring Future Boy,” Dad sighs. “It’s hard enough getting him to calm down already.”
Fine. Dad’s by far her favorite, so if he asks her to stop, she will. That doesn’t stop her from giving the nervously fidgeting kid a sly wink.
“Oh, right, you didn’t hear about all that,” Blue says, clapping his hands together like he needs to emphasize his realization. Dramatic.
“What?” Piebald asks dryly, putting out an air of utter disinterest. (She doesn’t actually hate Blue- maybe a little resentment, but it was really just a dumb mistake and hey, she got sentience out of it so it’s not all bad- but bullying him is one of life’s many pleasures)
“Okay, so this is Piebald, everybody,” Blue says, gesturing to her in a fashion somehow even more over the top than Orange’s earlier gesturing to Draxum. “She was Dad’s goldfish, got tragically flushed in an accident that was nobody’s fault-” Piebald snorts derisively “- and mutated in the sewers, so now she’s our half-sister! She’s eighteen-”
“Nineteen.”
“Nineteen, and majoring in Marine Biology-”
“Child Education.”
“Child Educa- wait, really?”
“Yes. Heaven forbid any more children than necessary grow up to be as illiterate as you.”
“Ouch. Anyways, she goes to college in the Hidden City!”
Blue moves his chai- wheelchair when did that happen? over to the female human.
“This is April O’Neil! She’s eighteen, our honorary big sister, and she has a crane license!”
Purple, Red, and Orange all clap politely.
“She’s human,” Piebald notes evenly. The mood drops a little.
“If I was gonna tell anybody about the turtles and rat man in the sewers, I would’ve done it years ago,” the human laughs, knocking her shoulder into Orange playfully.
Okay, maybe this human isn’t so bad. Whatever.
“Thiiiiis,” Blue wheels over to a blonde capybara yokai Piebald didn’t even notice was there. “Is Todd! He’s… uh.. I don’t actually know how he would be related to us or why he’s here, but he makes really good lemonade!”
“I do!” Todd says cheerfully. “I run a puppy shelter a little ways into the woods; you should visit sometime!”
Purple visibly shudders for some reason.
The door slams open violently.
“Hey, Casey!” April calls.
“That’s Casey Jones,” Blue says as the two humans greet each other. “She runs a Girl Scout mafia and is full of rage at all times.”
“HELLO!” Casey shouts, loud enough that Piebald wishes she were several yards further away. “I HAVE COME BEARING GIFTS, AS IS TRADITIONAL! MY GIRLS HAVE PUT TOGETHER SOME DELICIOUS COOKIES- THE FINEST OF OUR STOCK! TONIGHT, WE SHALL FEAST!”
“Sounds awesome, Casey,” Red says with a wince.
“WHERE IS MY SEQUEL?”
“Hey,” the human boy greets weakly, giving a small wave. Piebald almost feels bad for scaring him before- this kid looks downright pitiful.
“Speaking of that, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled program!” Blue calls in an exaggerated TV host impression. “That’s also Casey! He’s that Casey’s son from the future in another timeline where that alien invasion like six months ago caused an entire apocalypse! We call him CJ!”
Pardon?
Piebald’s bafflement must show on her face, because Dad winces.
“That is a story we can talk about over dinner. Come, let us set the table.”
Piebald is then briefly introduced to a large paper man apparently called Buddy and two small gargoyles with complementary names she has no hope of keeping straight.
Despite Dad’s words, there is no talk of the alien invasion Piebald distantly remembers the college dorms being put on lockdown for. Anything close to the subject is swiftly shifted to a new discussion topic with such ease that Piebald wouldn’t have picked up on it if she wasn’t already suspicious.
Piebald is a patient mutant, and so she waits, joining the conversations with lighthearted jabs at the turtles (mostly Blue), and taking mental notes. Purple is wearing his metal shell- at a family dinner in his own home. He looks incredibly nauseous when Todd passes him the Jello casserole the gargoyles brought, and his brothers quickly send it to the other side of the table as casually as they can. Orange’s hands shake, nearly spilling his cider until April hands him a straw to use instead. He jumps at small noises. Red seems to have impaired vision in his cloudy eye, startling slightly every time Draxum passes him something. There is a hole at the top of his shell Piebald is fairly certain wasn’t there before. Dad is always alert, ears swiveling at any noise, tail twitching anxiously. Piebald holds no real love for humans, nor does she know much about them as a species, but it’s hard to miss the large scar on April’s palm, almost like a burn, though not quite. Acid, maybe? She is the most active in steering conversation away from whatever dangerous topics they’re avoiding, a sort of protectiveness to her. The male- CJ- eats small portions, shyly refusing rich dishes especially. A bladed staff of some kind rests on his chair, the only weapon in the room. And then.. well… How could she not notice Blue? Blue, white bandages wrapped around his body, one leg in a cast, another in a brace, confined to a wheelchair (hopefully just temporarily). Blue, whose behavior is perhaps the most concerning. He acts exactly as he always has, not a single odd mannerism Piebald can detect. He laughs loudly, only his hand twitching closer to his ribs betraying pain. He jokes and chatters and… ah. He flinches, once, when April returns from refilling her plate and pats him on the shoulder without him noticing her approach. But just once.
It’s a little while after dessert is done when Blue stifles yet another yawn into his fist.
“Alright, time for bed,” April declares, pulling Blue’s wheelchair from the table.
“Awww!” the boys all complain.
“Not you, dum-dums. Him.”
Purple and Orange fistbump in relief. Blue scowls.
“It’s not even eight!”
“Healing takes a lotta energy, Leo, you know that. C’mon, get some sleep.”
Blue continues grumbling as he’s taken away to his room, to Piebald’s amusement. The second he leaves, the room immediately drops into a cold, somber tone.
“I know you have questions,” Dad says, looking around the table. Casey crosses her arms. Buddy twiddles his thumbs. The gargoyles nod in unison. Draxum leans forward. Todd puts down his lemonade pitcher. The others, whom Piebald assumes were all involved in whatever story Dad is about to tell, shrink just slightly in their seats, eyes flicking around.
Dad recounts the story, occasionally letting someone else add their own details. Piebald takes it all in. So CJ was the catalyst after a flubbed mission. She can’t help but feel a bit bad for Blue. He’s immature and ridiculous, but those were not flaws that should have had such horrible consequences. Red’s eye, a result of his possession, literally ripping a parasite out of him. Purple’s body, pockmarked from the massive ship he piloted. And…
The dinner guests listen silently as Dad moves on to the climax of the story. His voice breaks before he can finish, but April picks it up as she returns from Blue’s room, eyes sad but unbending.
Oh, Blue.
The tale continues. Orange pulling a miracle from thin air, fracturing himself in the process. And, of course, his brothers helping, sharing the pain to bring Blue home. So stubbornly, stupidly loyal.
Dad finishes, and the room falls into a hushed quiet. Casey clenches her jaw. Buddy whimpers quietly. The gargoyles cling to each other. Draxum sighs, heavy and tired and sad. Todd worries his bottom lip, offering lemonade in a fragile attempt to comfort.
Still.
There’s something Piebald can’t shake. A niggling thought she cannot banish, try as she might.
All of a sudden, a funny memory is significantly less amusing.
He’s done this before.
“What?”
Purple looks at her, and she realizes she must have mumbled that aloud. A bad habit, she knows.
“Blue. He’s done this before. I just didn’t realize.”
Red leans forward, brow furrowing.
“It was less worrying when there wasn’t actually any real danger,” Piebald muses softly. “Once is dismissible, but twice? Concerning.”
“What are you talking about?” April asks. Piebald can almost feel her hackles raising protectively.
“That revenge prank Dad and I pulled on you.”
Purple very quietly whispers, “Yes, finally, proper grammar,” gleefully before shutting up at Dad’s stern look.
“When you tried to flush us all?” Red huffs dryly.
“Yeah, thanks for that,” Purple drawls. “Mikey had nightmares for weeks, kept barging into my lab.”
Piebald waves a fin dismissively. “You did it to me first.”
“Accident.”
“And I didn’t go through with it. Back to the subject at hand: you were all tied up, remember? Except…”
“Except Leo,” Red says, brow furrowing.
“I didn’t think much of it at the time because I knew there wasn’t any actual danger. But Blue didn’t. He fully thought I was going to kill you all.”
Purple’s brow furrows as well, scanning through his memories of that incident to figure out what Piebald’s getting at.
Orange beats him to it, slamming his fist on the table with sudden fury before putting his head in his hands.
“Ugrrghh! I can’t believe- ooohhgr.” Orange growls wordlessly.
“What? What is it?”
“Leo’s made a pattern of self-sacrifice,” Purple realizes dully. The others turn to him, eyes wide. CJ just looks down at his hands gloomily.
“I can’t even- thinking about it, I’m not even surprised,” Orange sighs in frustration. “He’s always been like that; I just never noticed ‘cause it never got that far before.”
“Oh,” Red says quietly.
“What?”
“Remember the Maze of Death thing?”
Purple and Orange nod with a grimace as the others stare blankly.
“Leo got us into a messy situation ‘cause he did something stupid, an’ he offered himself up to fix it,” Red explains.
Ah. Piebald can connect the dots.
“That’s the pattern.” Oh, that kid has so many issues.
April looks ill.
“So he- because-”
“He lost the key,” Purple says detachedly, looking rather sick himself. “He charged in without thinking, made bad plans, and then.. And then he tried to fix it by killing himself.”
Everyone flinches at the way he phrases it.
Red slams the table in helpless frustration.
“It’s my fault,” CJ says miserably.
They all turn to look at him. He doesn’t look up from his hands, gaze steely.
“I was pissed at him for not taking it seriously. He wasn’t listening to anybody, and he refused to back out even when our team was way over our heads. I was scared,” he confesses. “I was so scared that I’d fail, that the world would end and Master Michalengelo and Sensei sacrificed themselves for nothing. I thought- Master Leonardo mentored me basically my whole life. It was… jarring to see a version of him that made really bad decisions, that was reckless and single-minded and everything Sensei always told me would get everyone killed. We got stuck together after the subway Kraang monster attacked, and I lost it. I yelled at him. A lot.”
“It’s not your fault, CJ,” Orange says, leaning his head on the human’s shoulder. “Yelling at each other is part of the brother experience, especially with Leo ‘cause he always makes jokes when people are upset with him instead of actually talking to them.”
“Maybe I should go into child psychology instead,” Piebald half-jokes with a sort of numb alarm.
“I’m gonna need to make some really good lemonade,” Todd whispers to himself, abruptly reminding everyone that the other guests (who had remained silent) were present.
April snorts despite herself, which makes Orange giggle. This sets off Red, making Dad laugh. Purple is next, putting his head in his hands with shoulders shaking in mirth. Piebald starts too, and she can see CJ hiding a smile in his hand. Soon everyone is laughing, even Draxum.
“Hey, you guys are having a party without me?”
“Leo, if you don’t get back in bed this instant-”