Chapter Text
The sun shone bright in the ivory dotted cerulean sky above the new botanical garden. The garden was a maze of bushes and blooms with scattered maps should anyone get lost. Mikey had heard about this place from April. It'd been a few months since the whole ‘Shredder Incident’, and he needed a break from the tension slowly growing in the new lair. Raph and Leo had slowly been going for each other’s throats and were starting to drive her and Donnie up the walls.
Scratch that it drove Angel farther up whatever wall their instincts did.
He'd just been so restless since the move and always felt the need to go somewhere . Always feeling a tug of wrong accompanied by a greater need to move around.
Thus, the solo stealth trip to the garden.
Well, xe didn’t mean to sneak out, they just forgot to tell someone. Besides, the fam can live without xer for a little while, right? Because, if anyone breaks anything in the kitchen or pizza supreme in the sky forbid, his room , they’ll get a few visits from Doctor Delicate Touch. So, they’re fine.
Probably.
They better not burn her kitchen again.
The ornate box turtle had decked himself out in an orange and black hoodie, well, mainly orange and black. It's hard to keep only the original colors on something when you paint and spray as often as xe does. The maroon sweatpants they’d grabbed earlier hadn’t been subjected to the wonders of paint yet, so they currently were at the ‘blank canvas’ stage.
Mikey let out an excited giggle as she bounced through the maze, snapping pictures on his phone. Oh, I’ve got to bring the others through here! It’s so bright and colorful- Man, I should draw some flowers when I get back- Ooo they’re all so pretty! I gotta bring Dee here, they’d lose their mind.
Their aimless wandering through the blooming halls brought him to a decently small circular area. An eastern red cedar sat directly to the right of the entrance while forget-me-nots lay at the base of the wall of green toward the left. The far side had marigolds, lilies of the valley, and white chrysanthemums lining where the wall shifted from greens to the soft purple of Rhododendrons.
The box turtle started for the flowers across the grass when xey saw the small dots of blue. “ Omigosh they have forget-me-nots!” She quickly squatted down and started snapping pictures, gently feeling a few petals before jumping up and bounding to the far side.
Xe quickly squatted at the blooms and gently felt their leaves and petals as he kept photographing, “Oh! These were marigolds, you guys are a pain to draw you know? Ooo and there’s valley lilies! The little droopy beans! And- and- ugh- what were you called again... Ker- no, Chris somethin’... Oh! Chris moms, right? Eh, you’re Chris moms now. Oh! And rhodo- rhodo- um- rhodonites? Yeah, that sounds right!”
A small dot of bright orange sat on a leaf near the Rhododendron bloom xe had been inspecting. They let out a questioning chirp and moved his face a little closer, “What are-? Oh, hello lil’ guy!” The small cardinal jumping spider, that seemed to lack any self-preservation, crawled a little closer from its spot on the leaf. It slowly climbed onto her hand when he offered it, earning a cooing trill for its efforts.
“You’re so small! Just a little guy huh?” Xeir growing excitement increased tenfold when his gentle petting was accepted. “ Omigosh, you’re so soft !” Mikey leaned back and put a hand to xer chin and gently continued the strokes to its abdomen with his thumb, “Ok-k-k, you sir- or ma’am, never really looked into spiders sorry , need a name... Hmm... You’re orange and black... I found you in the rhodonite bush... Oh- Oh, I know! I’ll call you ‘Rhodo’! How's that sound lil guy?”
Michael could swear she could feel stars in his eyes when their little buddy tapped against xer hand with their front legs.
“ You - are coming with me.” He slowly stood and let the spider crawl onto their shoulder, “Let’s go lil’ buddy! I’ll make sure to bring you back here later when I’m ‘bouta leave!”
She felt a few more of the Rhododendron blooms before turning to the entrance.
Xe got a few strides before feeling something gently land on the back of xer head. “Oh? Um? New friend?” He started to bring an arm up to feel whatever had landed on them. “Hey lil’ dude? Imma’ have to ask you to get off!-” She let out a startled yelp and reflexively slapped the back of xeir head as something sharp thrust its way into his scalp, injecting some sort of thick cold liquid into them.
[Mutation Start]
“ Ew ew ew ew ew- what the fuck was that? The heck just shot me? Was I shot? Bit? I know tranquilizers ain’t ‘sposed to feel like that- well- Dee's don’t, but what -”
The turtle froze at the sight of a large green mosquito flying away from him as the liquid slowly spread throughout her veins.
Is that a god damn Oozesquito?
“I thought you only bit humans! The heck you bitin’ mutants for, huh? Didn’t ‘yo parents ever teach you this shit? Well. Barry did kinda’ just create y’all and bolt... Hold up, Barry’s a deadbeat to his bug children!”
She was about to continue the one-sided argument when the cold throughout xeir veins turned to a soldering heat, forcing a strangled scream from his chest. Their knees gave out below xem as he crashed to the ground, phone falling and landing beside her in the grass.
Why? What? Fuck- why does this burn ? Am I dying?
Choked whimpers left xeir beak partnered with distressed chirps. Tears flowed in waterfalls down his face as she tried to curl impossibly smaller. The oversized hoodie over their shell practically drowned xer in a sea of fabric.
I- I don’t- what’s going on ? What do I- phone. I- I have my phone! I- just need to call someone- I- I'll be fine!
He reached blindly around them, panic slowly growing the longer it took. If she hadn’t been already, xe would have started bawling. The details on the screen were blurred beyond recovery while xey instinctively unlocked their phone.
Who did I call last? Fuck - screw it- it doesn’t matter!
The few seconds it took for someone to pick up were agony .
He swore he could feel his bones shifting within her shell.
“Mikey!? Where are you? You've been gone for hours!”
The relieved sigh they wanted to breathe from hearing his eldest brother was drowned by desperate chirps and whimpers. The nearly palpable fear that radiated from Raphael only increased at the youngest’s sounds. Raph let out a chuff before he continued, “Ok, it’s ok big man we’re gonna’- Raph’s gonna’ come get ya’, yeah? You're gonna’ be ok, it’s alright Mimi,” Her voice became distant for a moment as he leaned away from the phone, “Donnie! You find ‘im yet? Oh, thank God . It’s gonna’ be ok Mimi just stay put. Just- just try to breathe big man, come on. We’re getting in the tank now we’re on our way! We’re comin’ Mimi just hang on, Raph’s-”
He was trying to breathe, xe really was! She even managed a few decent breaths! But the slim amount of progress they’d managed on either of their panic was erased by the sudden gut-wrenching scream that came from the box turtle.
Their entire body was screaming in agony. His tail felt as if someone was trying to pull it off, but it refused to do anything but stretch farther. The sides of her shell felt as though they were getting knocked away from his carapace and plastron, like something was pushing them away from xer body, and by the horrible cracking sounds they might as well have been. His hips felt as though her skeleton had staged a revolution and was trying to carve its way out. The dizzying sharp pain of the headache alone would have been torture.
Xe feebly clawed at the growing sea of fabric that clung to him, squirming harder to try and escape the wet, red-stained cloth at her sides.
They couldn’t hear the panicked calls from the discarded phone over xer tearful calls.
[Mutation End]
Something in her frazzled brain snapped as the world seemed to grow around him. Xe froze as the hoodie fell around him, instinctively trapped in the soft cavern. Their thoughts stood frozen as his new instincts settled into place, numbed senses slowly returning. All four of its pawed hands reached out to the nearest wall, brain buzzing happily at the texture as its front legs tapped the floor. It continued to feel the walls as he aimlessly wandered, unbound chirps and churrs spilled from behind its fanged beak.
The distant calls of familiar voices rang throughout the area, only duly noted by his instinct driven brain.
The panicked voice of his blue bandanaed brother called to the other two, “ Guys! Guys I found his jacket!”
It froze at the thundering vibrations swiftly approaching, the only thought running through its brain was danger , legs prepped to leap away if anything got too close.
The rapid questions and conversation being held above it were drowned by the rapid buzzing in her brain. Xeir frazzled thoughts started to find possible escape plans before losing each and starting over.
One moment he was trying to think.
The next it was falling.
It hit the ground on its shell with a soft thud. Disoriented, it started blindly reaching for something to hold onto, paw pads only grazing the nearby towers of green. He managed to shakily rise to their feet, holding xer arms out to steady herself. The fast conversation and footsteps around the double mutant were sending his instincts into overdrive. Their bottom set of arms curled around his plastron as the other two went to cover her ears as xeir legs tensed, ready to leap if needed.
A large clawed green foot landed centimeters from where xe stood.
It bolted.
The world became a blur of greens as it weaved between bushes and grass. The ringing in her ears muted all noise around it. All conscious thought had been buried to the depths of their mind by the time it stopped. The spiderling took in its surroundings. The towering branches of the bush it resided under let in small flicks of light that dulled a new thrum of fear that had started to take root.
An empty feeling in its core was a sudden reminder she hadn’t eaten in a while.
The faintest scrape of a leaf echoed down to its position. Its head snapped toward the dulling sound as it started to climb into the forest of green. It perched on a branch, stilling as it let its gaze search for its prey.
It snapped to attention when the scraping returned, gaze locking on the small caterpillar on a nearby branch. It looked around one sixth of his new height. The head was black while its sides ran a dark grey, sporting what looked to be the beginnings of small dull spines.
Fixated on the creature, the spider readied itself and leapt, fangs shifting to meet their mark.
They might’ve chuckled at how easy it was to catch if he could.
Its paws idly tapped on the branch beneath them as it sat.
I need to go ba- safe here . They need to be able to find m- nest! Exposed. Too exposed. Need nest. Need to go make home .
The thin strand of consciousness she managed to grab slipped from his fingers as fast as it came.
The blurred vision of green shifted back to black as they once again took the backseat.
It ventured impossibly deeper into the web of branches, unaware and uncaring of the panicked scene they had just fled. The bale they were leaving behind.
He was hurting.
He was in danger.
He was hungry.
It would make sure to keep him safe.