Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The world was muted. Everything sounded like they were underwater. Fire and light rained from the sky high above New York from the Krang’s mothership explosion. Even from here Raph’s bones vibrated from the aftershock, but he couldn’t feel anything. His vision was coming in and out of focus. There was a horrible hole opening up in Raph’s chest that could eclipse the hole the Krang ship came through.

What Raph did hear was the sound of Mikey’s straining voice. Raph looked up. The youngest Hamato was reaching out with both hands towards the sky, trembling with strained force. Fat tears rolled down his face and onto the pavement. It was more instinct than thought that told Raph what Mikey was doing. He was calling his Ninpō with every ounce of willpower he had. Trying to recreate what only a future master could barely achieve.

“Mikey… It’s over.” Raph shakily got to his feet. His voice sounded alien to even himself.

“Leo never gave up on us!” Mikey declared through his teeth, “I’m not giving up on him!”

Raph watched his baby brother strain with what little energy he had left. His Ninpō crackled and popped in the air like sparklers. Chaotic. Unfocused. Weak… Deep down, Raph felt a horrible truth. He didn’t know how it was true—perhaps it had just been a Hamato bloodline link whispering to him—but Raph could just… feel it…

It wouldn’t work.

The golden sparks collided into a small blast that exploded in Mikey’s face. For a long moment, Mikey was frozen, shaking with labored breaths. Then he broke down into loud wails. A river of tears streamed down his face as he slumped to his knees. Donnie was rigid, eyes transfixed on the sky. Searching for something he knew wasn’t there anymore. His mind was numb. His body was numb. He didn’t even notice tears of his own staining his mask.

And Raph… Raph was choking. He couldn’t breathe. There was a hole opening up in his chest and an icy feeling chilled him down to his bones. The weight of the entire world and more came crashing down on top of him. That icy feeling suddenly turned hot. So hot Raph felt like there was lava in his chest. Burning every fiber of him, needing to get released or he would burst—

New York was saved from the Krang. The ship’s explosion was proof enough for the terrified humans of New York…

But the city shuttered in fear to hear an earth-shattering roar of grief split the night air.

It was freaking cold. Raph rumbled with a disgruntled grunt from where he laid face down in the living room. Even with Donnie’s massive heat lamp warming his shell, Raph could feel the cold, dreary autumn air that chilled New York above the sewers. He felt his joints aching, but it’s not like he hadn’t laid on the concrete floor to soak up more heat before. Was it because of the weather? Man, was he getting old? He didn’t like it.

The sound of a loud yawn made Raph peek one eye open. Mikey teetered into the room, rubbing one eye. Looked like he was tired because of the weather too. It was probably their turtle genes that made them wanna sleep all day when it was cold out.

It was still kinda weird to see Mikey with hair. He really did get those Lou Jistu genes from Pops. They had all been shocked when the first few hairs had sprouted on his cranium years back– except for Casey, who confessed that Master Michelangelo in his timeline had hair. Since then, Mikey had been trying to grow it out for a more ‘hot young movie samurai look’, as he described it. But it was just a sorta long bob right now, messy with a little fluffy half ponytail bouncing between the tails of Mikey’s mask.

Raph on the other hand only seemed to grow hair on his chin and upper lip— now he had to shave every day. He was NOT ready to rock the old ‘sensei’ mustache goatee combo just yet. He definitely looked older now, though. To Raph’s dismay he grew even bigger over the years. It made it harder to try to go to the surface, which was a bummer. Just when Raph was opening back up to going outside again, too.

After the invasion… it had taken a long, long time before any of them had been ready to leave the lair to go to the surface. But when it was finally time for the Mad Dogs to emerge, Raph was shocked at just how big he’d gotten. He grew a few more spikes on his shoulders, but thankfully they were on the smaller side. They took a ruby hue, almost looking like he had triangle freckles like how Mikey had round marks and Donnie had stripes. The scar on his eye didn’t hurt much anymore—thank pizza supreme—but the scar on his palm when he had stopped the Krang from--… well, sometimes it tingled uncomfortably. But it wasn’t too bad, all things considered.

The flash of the silver stripe in Mikey’s tresses caught Raph’s eye. Mikey was in no way old– that stripe had formed as the bi-product of his mystic power training throughout the years. Mikey looked a lot different than he did when they were young. And it wasn’t just his hair. More yellow patches appeared on his skin steadily over the years. Freckled with large and small birthmarks thanks to his turtle DNA. Mikey hadn’t gained too much height (much to his despair compared to Donnie) but the muscles of his arms and legs were a bit more defined now. Though he still didn’t look like he could literally throw buildings like Raph knew he could. With the weather getting colder, Mikey started wearing the colorful, bright, 80’s windbreaker he’d found at a thrift store once and fell in love with. The sleeves were a tad short for his long arms, exposing the scarred skin of his forearms. Another bi-product of Mikey’s overexertion to honing to his mystic powers. The family had a long talk with him when they started forming. Thankfully they haven’t spread since then.

Offhandedly, Raph’s eyes glanced at Mikey’s wrist.

He always caught himself looking at the blue bandanas they wore on one of their wrists, even if he didn’t mean to.

Seeing the faded azure fabric on Mikey’s wrist made Raph itch his wrist against the concrete. He knew his own blue wrist wrap was on—he could feel it on top of his black arm compresses– it just felt reassuring to feel it rubbing between the ground and his body. When he did, his joints creaked. Yeesh—was it because of the weather? Was he actually that stiff?

Sweet Pizza Supreme in the Sky they were only in their twenties and Raph felt like an old man.

“It’s too cooooooooooold,” Raph let out a puff of air as Mikey unceremoniously popped down right on top of his shell. Raph’s brow scrunched up. Mikey wasn’t heavy, but now he was blocking the lamp—AND he was cold against his shell he had worked so hard to warm up.

“Get off Mikey,” Raph gruffed.

“No way,” Mikey mused back, sounding just as grumpy. Well, whatever then. Raph actually liked it when his brothers climbed on him— that, and he was just too tired to care right now.

The familiar sounds of electronic beeping reached Raph’s ears. As they grew louder, Raph silently hoped Donnie was NOT going to try to get him to move from this heat lamp…

“Alright maidens,” Donnie called, the familiar beeping of his forearm cuff ringing in Raph’s head, “We have exactly two hours and eighteen minutes before the supermarket closes. We better get moving.”

God damn it, Donnie.

Both Mikey and Raph groaned in unison. Raph shot Donnie a grumpy glare. Donnie was too busy looking at his damn computer cuff to notice. Like Raph and Mikey, Donnie was looking more grown up too. He didn’t seem to have caught any hair growing genes—that or he was hiding it and shaved it all off. There was no way Donnie of all people would tolerate the feeling of loose hair or even stubble on his skin. Despite not growing hair, Donnie gained a few more purple blocks on his skin. He grew like a bean pole—getting taller but not wider. His skinny frame made Raph fret over his new battleshell. It was bigger than the one he used to wear daily when they were kids. It had a similar blocky pattern, but down the center ran a thread of small studs, almost looking like a spiky spinal cord. This shell was super-sized compared to the scale of his older models. A harness of straps webbed across Donnie’s plastron and thighs, like he was about to go mountain climbing. An added aid to help relieve the weight of his shell off his shoulders.

It made Raph mad that Donnie always brushed off his concerns that it was too heavy for him. He justified it with the fact that he carried more medical supplies and was equipped for more situations, no matter how outlandish. Raph was glad they were prepared, but… it seemed like overkill. Just like his goggles, which gained two more lenses to give Donnie even more options in assessing a situation.

Donnie had all this tech at his fingertips.

But he insisted that they had to go out?

Raph puffed a frustrated sniff through his nose. Raph did NOT feel like going out today. Especially with this weather. “Can’t we get Draxum or someone to go get stuff for us?” Raph grumbled, not even trying to hide his crankiness.

He felt Mikey’s chin move against his shell as he groaned, “Drax is busy preparing for the regional school-cafeteria-awards-thingie in DC… What about April?”

“And April is studying for Finals,” Donnie flatly shut down the idea. Mikey whined louder dramatically. Raph felt a little bad about asking April to run errands for them… but he just was so not in the mood today.

That, and for the past few weeks Raph couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. By who or what, he didn’t know. At first, he thought it had been his imagination. Just his ninja instincts and nerves getting the better of his paranoia. But there were times during patrol he saw a lurking shadow vanish when he caught sight of it. The occasional, foreign crackling sound nearby. And Raph could have sworn he saw a pair of glowing blue lights looking at him from an alley.

The snapper had been self-conscious that he was worked up over nothing– that his instincts and trigger sensitive Ninpō getting the better of him… Until Donnie confided in him the other day he had been feeling the same thing Raph was.

Yeah, no. Just thinking about it made Raph want to stay put even more.

“Can’t we go another time?” Raph complained loudly. He didn’t notice Donnie had stopped clicking away at his bracelet. There was a tired look in his eyes.

“… Papá wants more mandarin oranges for the shrine.”

The room went quiet.

“…Okay.” Raph pushed himself upright after a long moment, voice hollow. All traces of his grumpiness were gone. He directed his brothers to get dressed. Mikey and Donnie didn’t utter a word of complaint. In a couple of minutes, the three brothers were dressed in average streetwear, ready to go. After triple checking that they had money and every inch of his brothers were covered, Raph deemed them ready.

But there was one last thing to do before they went. Raph turned towards the lair.

“Hey Pops!” Raph called loudly. His voice echoed off the cold stone walls, “We’re going out!”

…Silence.

The brothers lingered for a moment longer, just in case. After a second longer, Raph heard a familiar little ‘beep!’ from his belt. Glancing down he grabbed the new flashing device that lived alongside their signature belt-buckle-panic-button-combo. It was round like many of Donnie’s handy devices, sporting his signature ‘genius tech’ logo… But the logo had changed since the invasion. Now every ‘genius tech certified’ safety device Donnie created sported his signature pentagon between two crescent moon shapes.

“…Be safe, my sons.” Splinter’s voice softly spoke through the communicator.

“Copy.” Raph spoke just as softly back through the reliever. With another little ‘beep!’ its light turned off. Clipping it back to his belt, he nodded with a little optimism.

“Alright boys—let’s go shopping.”

“Aw yeah!” Mikey pumped his fists in the air, plastic bags full and ready to burst swinging around his gangly arms, “Mission complete! Signature bodega ice cream bars for us and oranges for Pops!”

“Careful Mikey,” Donnie scolded. Despite his warning he didn’t even look up from his phone, “Don’t bruise the fruit.”

Raph laughed when Mikey stuck his tongue out at Donnie, thinking he wouldn’t see, but Donnie promptly punched him in the shoulder.

“Give me one of those ice creams,” Raph made grabby hands at the plastic bags, Mikey started to eagerly dig them out, the two of them ignoring Donnie’s flat remark of ‘weren’t you just complaining about how cold you were?’ Raph picked at the crinkly, colorful plastic wrap between him and his ice cream bar with a smile, “Raph can’t wait to get h—”

B O O M !

The novelty treat fell to the ground as Raph rushed to shield his brothers.

It had been sheer instinct. A muscle memory carved into his very bones. The loud sound of something exploding had him grabbing his brothers and holding them close faster than the ice cream bar could hit the sidewalk.

Nothing came crashing into him. After a second, Raph’s brain numbly realized the sound had been a little aways off—but it had been close enough to make him panic. Ever the mother hen, Raph checked on Donnie and Mikey—who just seemed uncomfortable from the squishing than anything. Relieved, Raph let them go. The three brothers turned their heads in the direction of the sound.

“Look!” Mikey pointed after a minute of searching. They could see the Grand Nexus Hotel from here—and there was a gaping hole in the wall up high, a plume of concrete dust in the air.

“Someone’s attacking Big Mama’s hotel?” Raph’s fists were curling on instinct.

“Wait a minute—” Donnie flipped his goggles down onto his face. The blue and red lenses telescoped out. “That’s the level where Big Mama’s office is,” Donnie announced.

“Anything related to Big Mama is bound to bite us in the butts later,” Mikey said what they were all thinking. Raph was tired, cranky, cold, AND just lost his snack. As much as he didn’t want to deal with anything right now, Mikey was right. Better to deal with it now. Unfortunately for whoever’s fault this was, they would have to deal with a Very Not Happy Raph.

“Then let’s just go get this over with and kick some butt!” Raph knocked his fists together. He smirked, “They owe me an ice cream.” He felt a flutter of pride in his chest to see he made his brothers smirk back.

“Let’s go check it out. Mad Dogs— let’s roll!”

The three Hamato brothers raced towards the towering Grand Nexus Hotel. Chunks of concrete and glass littered the streets below. It made Raph’s blood boil. What if people had gotten hurt from that? As they ran to the edge of the neighboring building’s rooftop, Raph looked at Donnie with a smirk, “Donnie– give a guy a lift?”

Donnie smirked back, small rockets deploying from his flight battleshell. Raph leapt off the roof with unwavering faith– and Donnie’s was there with his bo staff between his hands for Raph to grab onto like a monkey bar. Donnie’s battlehsell rocketed them skyward along the side of the building. The giant shell’s capacity to lift both Donnie and Raph through the air made it worth it in times like this. Mikey didn’t need a lift like Raph, though. He was right behind them, glowing Ninpō chains shooting up several stories to anchor into the concrete. Just how his chains could seemingly stretch forever, they could retract too– with powerful snaps of his arms, chains whirled upward, pulling Mikey up with incredible speed.

They flew through the cloud of dust lingering around the gaping hole and into Big Mama’s office. When they landed, they assumed fighting positions. Donnie poised with his tech bo– Mikey whirling a chain so fast it looked like a solid disk– and Raph with his fists up, ready to brawl

What awaited them was total chaos.