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Lou stared at the monster in front of him. The one that was going to turn these four innocent baby turtles into violent creatures. The human still couldn’t wrap his head around why this goat man would want to destroy humanity or how Lou was important for this plan. He just had to escape and stop this from happening. Lou thought when those two tiny creatures that he would escape the cycle of violence he always found himself in. He cursed his family and their traditions. If he was part of a family that was normal none of this would be happening. No matter how hard he tried to cut ties with his clan, trouble always seemed to find its way into his life. Lou reached his hand out trying to grab the box that held the four babies. He gently scooped out the pointy one that was the largest of all the babies and the pretty red-eared slider. For now, he could hold these cute turtles and think of a plan to save the five of them.
“I will name you Green,” He smiled at the turtle with red stripes before looking at the baby snapping turtle, “And you’re Green #2.” He paused seeing a shadow cover the cage that he was being kept in. He looked up at Draxum holding the two babies closer to him that he held in his hands.
“I see you've taken an interest in my future soldiers," Draxum smiled with his hands behind his back. He kept eyeing Lou's muscles. It was hard to read if it was because Draxum wanted him to fight or because he found him attractive. Lou didn't judge; he has made a lot of men question if they were straight and Lou himself was bisexual.
"I refuse to fight," Lou tilted his head up toward the ceiling, "I've chosen a life of peace!"
Draxum hummed as he had vines appear from the ground taking all four of the baby turtles and slowly raising them toward their gooey chambers. Lou started to reach for the cuties he had already grown attached to. They could have been nice pets after all. He cringed feeling gooey vines wrap around his wrist and ankles trapping him to the cage wall. Draxim smiled wickedly, "I don't need you to fight. I just need your inherited genetic gifts."
"No! I refuse to let you turn those innocent creatures into hideous monsters!" Lou's eyes flashed to the other cages full of creatures in the room. Those had to be this madman's other experiments.
"Monsters? No no, they'll be beautiful. These rare surface creatures are built for defense but are too slow to be a threat. With your DNA I'll be able to turn them into my people's future," The goat man explained, smiling. Some vines sharpened into needles stabbing into his veins. Lou watched in horror as Draxum pulled a lever. Blood getting drained from his body, not much but enough to make him feel woozy.
"No! Stop!" The human cried as he felt the blood being drained from his system. He assumed it was being pumped into the turtles above him. Draxum smiled as his eyes zeroed in on his future warriors. focused only on the turtles. Lou took his chance to rip himself free, “I swore to a life of peace, but this is a worthy moment to break my promise for. HOT SOUP!”
Lou flung himself towards the goat kicking the warrior in the chest. Draxum shouts in surprise as he flies back from getting hit. Draxum looked up at him growling at him. The two warriors were locked in combat. Draxum once threw him into the machine knocking out the four baby turtles. Lou looked down at the babies, surprised to see the four turtles, semi-humanoid and tiny. He could still hold the four in his hands. Green smiled up at him reaching up towards him with a smile. Like he already saw Lou as someone to trust. He heard the sounds of screaming and a horse neighing. Lou shook his head scooping up the turtles eyeing the original box they came in.
“Don’t worry little ones, I'll get you out of here. You two Mr. Rat,” Lou pulled a rat out of his coat pocket smiling at the friend he had made in the Battle Nexus. The rat bit down hard on Lou’s finger making the human cry in pain and shake his hand. The rat flew off before scurrying out of the room. Lou paused hearing some screaming before the lair lit up in a strange new lighting. He pulled the tiny turtles to his chest looking up. His foot hooks the inside of the box pulling it to his body.
“No! My lab!” Draxum cried. Suddenly some of the strange goo landed on Lou covering the man with the slime. Lou felt his chest tightening as his heart raced. Pain shot through him as he felt his bones cracking and shifting around like his entire body was morphing into something new. Draxum held out his arm as vines rushed towards Lou. A bang filled the lab as a bright light entered the room. The vines smashed into a button opening a strange hole in reality. Lou's eyes widened in surprise seeing the streets of New York. Lou dropped the four small turtles into a box rushing towards the door. Draxum grabbed his ankles dragging the rat towards him. This was his escape damn it. Lou looked back at Draxum before he shoved the box of babies through the portal. He twisted his body around punching him across the face and locking a leg around the goat’s waist. He took a second staring at his new rat claws in shock. Did he get mutated as well? Lou pushed it aside continuing to fight with the goat pinning him to the ground.
“You fool! The lab is about to explode!” Draxum screamed, tossing an elbow behind his back, nailing Lou in the side of the face. Lou grunted as pain flared across the side of his face.
“Then you can go down with it,” Lou hissed, tightening his grip on Draxum. The two mini gargoyles that had taken him from Big Mama. The two rested on Draxum’s shoulder, flapping their wings frantically and lifting the two men off the ground. Draxum had vines assist them carry all four of them out of the lab. Lou felt derby bits slam into his back making him lose his grip and fall. He held up his arms and legs catching debris before they could crush him. Lou looked off to the side watching Draxum get carried away to safety. Losing sight of the yokai. He hissed looking back up and focusing on just getting out of this mess alive.
------
Casey huffed as he paused right by an alleyway pulling out his water bottle. He had decided to patrol the streets and wait for the turtles to arrive from the swears to hang out. He paused as a bright flash of light came from the alleyway next to him, “Stupid krang.”
He grumbled resting his bike against the wall creeping into the alleyway. He held up his baseball bat looking around the corner. He frowned in confusion seeing that it was empty and the light was gone. The human teen walked over looking at the ground for any explosion residue on the ground or walls. He pressed his hands against the wall trying to find a secret entrance. Casey paused hearing the cries of multiple babies nearby him. Casey turned around looking for the babies he could hear crying. He looked back seeing a box where it sounded like the noises were coming from, but it was small enough he should at least see some hands or feet. Casey carefully moved closer and poked the box with his bat. The sound of a turtle chirping broke through the baby's cries.
“What-” Casey slid across the ground on his knees. He grabbed the side of the box looking inside pausing to see four baby turtles, but their proportions were off. Like they were mutated. Oh. God. Four mutant baby turtles. He looked down wondering if maybe the timeline was all wack reaching in to grab one of the turtles. He picked up a little orange one and jumped as the crying baby suddenly popped all its limbs and head into its shell. It completely closed off as if it hinged shut. The crying could be heard echoing inside. Casey looked down at the box frowning. A bigger baby with a spiky shell had thrown itself on top of the other two kids inside. He slowly placed the baby in his hand back in the tox. The bigger one reached his arm out pulling the closed-off baby under them again. Casey picked up the box, his heart pounding. He pulled out his phone dialing the first number of the turtle on his phone first.
“Casey? You never call me,” Donnie’s voice rang out from the other side. For once concern laced his voice instead of the typical annoyance, “Casey? Is that a baby crying?”
“I think so?”
“You think so? Casey, it's pretty easy to find out if it’s a real baby crying or not.”
“Oh the crying is real I just don’t know what kind of baby I’m looking at. And it’s four babies crying.”
“Four? You’re not making any sense, Johns. Where are you?”
“Augusta Street. In the alley.”
“Just give me ten minutes and I'll be there. I’ll stay on the phone with you.”
“Okay,” Casey leaned against the wall and sat down double checking to make sure he wasn’t sitting on nails or needles. He curled up with the box hugging close to his chest. His shoulder pressed his phone against his ear as he stared inside the box. What the hell am I supposed to do with them? Casey’s leg bounced rapidly just staring at the babies inside the box. At some point, the crying stopped. Casey couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in his ears. He flinched when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He almost swatted the end away until he looked up to see big reddish brown eyes staring at him. Donnie was breathing heavily before he finally looked down, his eyes widened kneeling in front of Casey playing with his hands on the tox. The purple turtle accidentally rested his hands on top of Casey’s.
“W-what is?”
“I don’t know.”
“How?”
“Don’t know. I saw a bright light and when I checked it out I found them crying.”
“The krang may be setting us up.”
“But it’s more of you.”
Casey continued to stare down into the box below them. Donnie moved a hand slowly reaching into the box gently touching the side of the big baby’s face. A weak growl came from them slowly turning his head and opening his mouth. Donnie pulled his hand away before the infant could bite down on his finger. He smiled weakly as he attempted to make a parental turtle call for the babies. The squishy long one at the bottom of the pile snapped their head up. The pretty red and blue one called back at Donnie stretching their little arms out. Casey chuckled smirking at Donnie with a teasing eyebrow wiggle. Donnie blushed, punching Casey’s shoulder.
“Hey careful I’m the one holding them,” Casey teased, hugging the box closer to his chest, “I’ve never heard you make turtle sounds before.”
“Well, I’ve never needed to. We were raised by a mutant that was a human before. He didn’t know what our cries were unless they mimicked the human cries he understood,” Donnie huffed, reaching back in to gently pet the shells he could touch continuing to make those sweet parental calls. His voice cracked a few times. It may be a natural call for him but he still wasn’t used to doing it. Casey watched in amazement as the four turtles inside responded to Donnie. The big one let the three smaller ones crawl out from under them. The one who had closed themself off completely had crawled to the edge of the box reaching up towards Donnie. Donnie smiled at them gently scratching the orange baby’s chin. The orange one patted the side of the box happily chirping louder than Casey thought his little lungs could muster.
“So. What are we going to do?” Casey asked, looking up at him frowning. Donnie sighed as he tilted his head, chewing his lip.
“We can’t leave them, but this could be a setup. They may have trackers in them for the krang or even Shredder to find our lair,” Donnie sighed as he started to chew the inside of his cheek.
“It’s just a risk we have to take,” Casey frowned, looking Donnie in the eyes. Donnie sighed nodding in agreement.
“Let’s go. I’ll check them in my lab for possible trackers once we get there,” Donnie got up removing a manhole cover for Casey. Casey crawled down just staring at the tiny turtles in the box. He hummed tilting his head to the side.
“What should we name them?” Casey asked gently, nudging the orange one with his finger.
“Naming is Mikey’s thing,” Donnie jokes, quickly catching up with the human. He looked into the body smiling at the babies himself. He couldn’t deny how exciting it was to find more of his kind.
“Mikey is good at shitty names. We need to give them real names,” Casey mumbled, smiling as he heard a particularly loud chirp come from the box. Like they were throwing a tantrum for his attention, “That was so loud~”
The slider had crawled on top of the orange one pushing them down. They glared at Casey continuing their chirping tantrum. Donnie chuckled, reaching in and picking them up. He held them to his chest purring at the one in his arms. Suddenly the turtle with a squishy shell shot out from under the big one slamming its body into the side of the box. They called out with panicking chirping calls. Donnie quickly placed the slider into the box. The squishy shell rushed to Donnie’s hand attempting to bite at his fingers growling. Donnie pulled his hand out just in time whistling.
“Do they not like being separated?” Donnie muttered as a mental note. Casey nods, snickering a bit at how spicey the kids could be. He wasn’t too worried about their enemies or now. He just wanted to keep these kids close and safe now.
“Must not. Cute little things,” Casey hummed making a few kissy faces at the babies. The squishy shell hissed at him. The spines on their backs raised at him. Casey laughed loving the sassy spirit they seemed to have.
Donnie helped Casey sneak through the lair to get to their lab. The two struggle to keep the noisy babies quiet enough to get there without drawing everyone’s attention. Donnie sighed as he got to his lab. Casey started to look out for extra blankets as Donnie set up a heat lamp for the kids. The babies were still cuddled up inside their box. The orange baby climbed on top of their siblings trying to grab the edge of the box. Casey came by gently moving the box shell off their brother’s back. They chirped up at Casey all huffy.
Casey laughed, “I’m sorry but you can’t go exploring yet lil guy.” He hummed, feeling Donnie right behind him looking back at the ninja. Donnie smiled, taking the box and walking over to his workbench. He gently scooped the echo of the turtles out resting them under the lamp. At first, they all squirmed about crying in distress. They settled down under the warmth. Casey smiled watching the four small bodies curl up with each other again.
Donnie gently poked at each of the turtles checking over every inch of skin and scales for any signs of a tracker or scares to give away where and how they were made. He had a magnifying glass to look for even the smallest of scares that could be left behind. The snapper and softshell turned trying to snap at Donnie the entire time. The only thing the genius could note about that being odd was the fact they were slightly more sticky. Some slimy residue was left behind. Like they just came out of eggs, but something was off. The subsidence was like a scientific recreation of an egg. There was no sign of the infants being sent as traps. Hell, there was no way to tell how they even got mutated. While he had them under his hands from poking and prodigy he did a general check, and all the babies were healthy. Though one thing did surprise Donnie. The slider was a girl, and the other three were boys. Donnie sat back trying to think. He scratched at one of their chins. Happy purrs continue to fill up the room.
“Soooo,” Casey pulled up an extra chair once Donnie was done with his check-up.
“I can’t find any signs of trackers on them. They could use a good bath,” Donnie mumbled, poking the softshell’s cheek. The softshell growled baring his teeth at Donnie. Casey laughed, petting the tiny sassy turtle.
“Well, we need baby things for them too. My mom has a storage unit that has mine and my lil sis’s baby stuff. I can go take some stuff out of there and sneak it back here,” Casey offered. Donnie nods as he looks up at him.
Donnie nods in agreement, “Ya. How about you go get some things and I bathe them. That way we can both think of names?”
“Alright. Ya. That sounds good,” Casey agreed, moving to give all four babies a few pets. The slider moved her head towards his hand. The snapper’s longer tail wagged a few times. The human pulled away starting his way towards the garage. It was the most hidden way in and out of the lair after all.
“Be back soon,” Donnie told him as he watched the human walk away. Casey turned, giving him a salute as he left. Donnie rolled his eyes smiling a bit. He looked back down at the sweet angels. He sighed, making a small wall of blankets so the babies were contained. He pushed his chair across the lab to a filing cabinet. He pulled four notebooks out of it, wheeling them across the lab back to the desk keeping the babies. He set the notebooks down, getting out some markers and a pen.
The purple-marked baby poked his head above the blanket wall. He stared down at the notebook tilting his head. He chirps at Donnie reaching his arms towards the notebooks. Donnie smiled, spotting curiosity in his eyes.
“You sure are a curious little one,” He hummed trying to scratch his chin with the pen. He scrunched his face up baring his teeth at Donatello. He laughed pulling his pen away so he wouldn’t agitate the baby. The purple one huffed and tried to throw himself over the wall reaching his arms out. Donnie laughed, reaching behind the softshell and putting him back inside of his makeshift nest. He yelped the softshell and leaned his extra-hidden neck out to bite Donnie’s hand. Donnie made sure to set the baby down before he yanked his hand away, shaking it out a bit, “Right- Softshells have long necks.”
Casey grabbed the keys to the party van as he left the lair. He needed something to travel between the unit and the lair. The van was the only thing that was casual enough to go in and out with, plus there was plenty of space inside. Hopefully, it would only take one trip. He hummed, hopping into the car about to turn the key.
“Where are you going, my dude?” Mikey asked, suddenly appearing in the passenger seat.
Casey jumped, pressing his body against the driver's side door, “Dude! Warn a man!” Casey punched his shoulder as hard as he could.
“Ow,” Mikey rubbed his arm, “Okay but where are you going?”
“I’m going out to get something for Donnie. Get out,” Casey pointed to the door. Mikey tilted his head confused looking back at the door.
“Why can’t I come?” He asked, crossing his arms. He raised a brow at Casey.
He sighed, “I’m going into a store for Donnie. That’s why. Just. Get out.” Mikey frowned slowly getting out of the car. He closed the door, still staring at Casey. Mikey didn’t know why but he didn’t believe him one bit. Mikey took a few steps back watching Casey drive off. He turned, staring at Donnie’s lab.
Casey gripped the steering wheel as he drove to the storage unit. That parental panic just settling in. Oh god, he just picked up four babies off the streets with no prep time and no clue where they were from. All he had is whatever Donnie can make and whatever hand-me-downs Casey could give. Hell Casey’s never thought about naming anything before let alone four infants! Casey felt his hands start to sweat thinking of what he could have gotten himself into. He was only 20. How could he possibly handle four kids? Could Donnie handle four kids? He was a year and a half younger than him! He groaned suddenly feeling selfish for dragging him into this mess. He was just the first person that came to mind when he saw them. Maybe he should have brought them to Splinter. He had the most experience with mutant infants! He would know what they eat and what they need! Donnie wouldn’t know he was barely an adult. Casey was barely an adult!
At the unit, Casey just sat in his car staring across from him. He had backed up so the trunk was in front of his mother’s unit. He turned off the car resting his forehead on the wheel. His eyes were wide and staring at whatever was in front of him. He just kept replying to it in his head, how he found them. He brought a hand to his mouth starting to chew on his nails. He groaned, hitting his head gently against the wheel, “You done goofed up this time Casey.”
Casey dug through boxes of old toys humming as he stared at a few. He could remember his sister playing with a few of them. Casey sighed as he packed up a couple of boxes. The boxes are a mix of baby bottles, toys, blankets, and clothes. It surprised him just how much junk his mother kept. Maybe she had been hopeful of having a third. Casey sighed as he packed up the only carrier and stroller that was there. Well for now the four of them were tiny enough to fit into one. He loaded everything into the party van, sending a list of everything he grabbed to Donnie. He sighed waiting for the genius’s response. Donnie would let him know what else he needed to get. Donnie sent him a small list of food to get for the babies. Casey gagged seeing it included worms and crickets along with baby formula. Well, they were mutants, what did he expect?
Donnie sat back looking at the softshell as he let him crawl around the desk. The little guy grabs a pen staring at it confused. He pulled it towards his little body wrapping himself around it. The pen was longer than the baby. Donnie laughed scratching the top of his head. He hummed as the pixel-patterned turtle growled at him, “How are you so grumpy but so curious?”
“Holy cannoli!” Mikey’s voice suddenly boomed across the lap. Donnie spun his chair around staring at his orange brother in horror. Oh, shell! Oh, shell! He wasn’t ready for anyone to know. Donnie rushed across the room covering his mouth.
“Mikey! You can’t tell anyone!” Donnie hissed trying to keep his voice down. He poked his head outside of the lab looking around to see if anyone had heard him before cloning the door again. Mikey reached his hand up grabbing his hand. He stared at his brother, his eyes wide in pure surprise. Donnie looked back to make sure all four turtle tots were accounted for. He let go of Mikey walking back over retrapping each of them in the blanket cage he had built so he didn’t have to tear his attention between them and Mikey.
“Dude…are those? Mutant baby turtles?” Mikey asked, rushing over to look at them. The snapper and softshell hissing at the noisy turtle. Donnie nods gently, petting his two peaceful babies trying his best to keep them content and happy. He had only known them a short bit but if the box and slider were happy their siblings would settle down. Mikey stared at Donnie in awe, cooing at the four babies. It was no longer a secret. Good thing Donnie had made sure they were clean of trackers.