Chapter Text
“Another day, another Shredder and Krang plot to take over the world,” Raphael complained as they waded through the sewers.
Normally this would irritate Leonardo. Just a little bit. Raphael got in these moods sometimes, where he seemed to resent the fact they were heroes.
But, considering that just a short while ago Leonardo had thought he'd never hear it again, he found it a little funny. This time.
“But we stopped them,” he declared. “And we'll stop them again! As many times as it takes before they are defeated!”
“And how many more seasons is that gonna--"
Raphael's fourth wall break was interrupted by a high pitched wail from further up the sewers.
“That sounds like a baby!” Donatello said.
Even more wailing began to echo through the tunnel.
“A lot of babies!” Michelangelo corrected, clamping his hands over his ears. “And they're mondo unhappy.”
“We'd better see what that's about,” Leonardo declared, taking off at a jog. Had the Neutrinos needed to send their kids to this dimension again? But why so many?
Then he turned the corner and his brain stopped. The babies were turtles. So many turtles.
One, two, three turtles crashed into his shell. All four toppled over into a pile. The wind rushed out of Leonardo's chest in a rush. Ow.
He found himself eye to eye with a strangely misshapen looking turtle infant. It stopped crying, looking at Leonardo.
“...Hi?” he wheezed, giving a little wave.
The baby threw its head back and started to wail even louder.
“Dude there's so many!” Michelangelo cried, hopping off the top of their turtle pile with hands still over his ears. “There's like, a bajillion!”
“I count thirteen-- no wait.” Donatello weaved his way through and picked up a spikey one that immediately tried to bite him. “..sixteen. Didn't see these at first. They’re tiny. ”
He set the one down and then picked the three up. All of them together fit in his cupped hands.
Leonardo pushed to his feet, looking at the mass of wailing babies. How did they all get here? He couldn't seen any signs of mutagen around, or a human having been by recently. So how did a bunch of baby turtles suddenly appear?
“Okay so what are we gonna do about this, Fearless Leader?” Raphael asked, also with his hands clamped over his ears.
Leonardo shook his head to clear it. Right, however it happened, the end result was they had a bunch of baby turtles on their hands. “We take them back to the Lair for now,” he declared. “Then we’lllllllll go from there.”
“You know, it's good to have you back.” Leonardo got the feeling that was supposed to be sarcastic. But it didn't sound that way at all. Raphael cleared his throat and immediately turned to the babies. “...So one question. How , exactly, are we gonna transport sixteen infant turtles?”
“...I'll call April.”
‐------------------
So like, in the end, getting all the babies back to the Lair was a mondo hassle. April and Irma helped, and then it turned out four of them could walk like regular turtles. Didn't even need to be bribed too much to follow!
They were still crying though. Well except the crawlers, but Michelangelo wasn't sure they could . Out of all of them, they seemed to be the most like normal turtles.
In the end, no need to tell sensei they were coming. He was waiting at the Lair entrance, ears perked in alarm.
“My students, what…” He trailed off, looking at the sight with even more alarm.
“Hey Sensei! We found babies!” Michelangelo said, as everyone else filed in behind him.
April and Irma started pacing back and forth, trying to rock two baby turtles at once. Leonardo and Donatello found a spot to stand in, rocking their cargo. Raphael ended up in the middle of the room, staring off into space.
The weird lumpy one with the particularly large head took one look at Splinter and quit crying, reaching for him. Huh. Meanwhile, the little black-eyed one was still weakly pounding his little fist into Michelangelo’s plastron.
“Someone left these adorable little guys out in the sewers.” April had to raise her voice to be heard over the cacophony of chaos.
Michelangelo's lumpy baby started to sniffle, as Splinter didn’t take him. The black eyed one stopped hitting Michelangelo at least.
“There was no trace of mutagen anywhere,” Donatello added.
The big-headed one started to cry again. Michelangelo bounced it up and down trying to shush it.
Sensei stopped him. “Show me later, Donatello. We must take care of calming these little ones-- watch out!”
The black-eyed one bit him! Michelangelo yelped, nearly dropping the little guy in surprise. He glanced up to see a flash of green disappearing under the couch. One of the crawlers was under the TV stand.
Where had the third and fourth gone?!
“We-- we must collect the infants,” Splinter
“Where are we going to put them?!” Irma cried. “There's so many!” She looked on the verge of tears, a tight grip on her two.
“I say someone runs to the pet store and buys a super sized tank.” Raphael had the most unhelpful suggestions sometimes.
“Raphael!” Splinter barked. Apparently he was fed up with it too. “Now is not the time!” He took a deep breath, looking around the room. “I believe our best solution is to temporarily change one of your sleeping cubbies into a sort of playpen.”
“But where will we sleep?!” Donatello cried.
“Donatello!” Splinter massaged his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. We will figure it out.”
“We can use my room, Sensei,” Leonardo said quickly.
Now Michelangelo felt a little bad. He hadn’t really wanted to give up his, but that was just kinda selfish. “You don’t have to, man--”
“No! We will be using Leonardo’s,” Splinter said firmly. “Leonardo, I shall take your little ones. Please remove everything dangerous and make sure it’s very securely blocked off. The rest of you-- help me see about quieting these infants.”
“Yes Master Splinter,” Leonardo said and jogged off towards their bedroom area.
Michelangelo’s little black-eyed one bit him again. “Yeowch! Dude! Do not make me drop you!”
He glared up at Michelangelo, teeth just clamping down harder. It hurt. Michelangelo tried to reach over and pull him off, but the lumpy one started squirming and Michelangelo worried he was gonna drop him too and--
It was too much. There were so many babies, so many were crying, and Michelangelo wanted to cry too. He sank to the floor, holding the babies in his lap. “Stop it,” he pleaded. Could barely hear himself think over the noise. “We're trying to help you lil dudes just. Chill out!”
Chompy bit him again.
“Would you cut that out?!” Michelangelo jerked his hand away. His ears were ringing from all the crying , his hand hurt was this ever gonna stop --
“Trade you.” Raphael plunked down next to Michelangelo, offering him the baby nestled in his palm. It quieted a second, red-striped eyes blinking open and looking up at Michelangelo. Then they squeezed shut again and he let out another wail.
At least he wasn't biting. “Deal,” Michelangelo said, shifting Chompy to Raphaels's lap and cuddling the little guy to his plastron.
Raphael only flinched when Chompy took the opportunity to dig his little teeth into his hand. Just sat there staring off into space and… “Dude, are you crying?”
“What?” Raphael started. “...No?”
“You are, bud. You okay?”
Raphael's face crumpled. “They're so loud Michelangelo. They're so loud and upset and I don't know what to do with them.”
“Aw don't say it like that.” Now Michelangelo’s eyes were stinging. “You're gonna make me cry.”
“I can't help it!” Now Raphael was wailing too. “It's too much !”
“Well don't make it worse!” Irma snapped, glaring their way.
“Er. I think I have it set up?” Leonardo appeared in the doorway.
“Oh thank pizza supreme.” Donatello made a beeline for it, practically knocking Leonardo aside in his hurry.
“Be careful, my turtles!” Splinter called as Raphael and Michelangelo scrambled to their feet too.
‐-----------------
For doing a hack job, Leonardo’s makeshift playpen was a solid piece of work. He’d put his mattress on the floor, so the babies had something soft to sit on. Lashed the grate from Donatello’s cubby to his to make a little wall. Only problem was, it was too wide for the littlest four. Irma had those in her lap, keeping an eye on the other eight while most everyone else tried to collect the mobile four.
Most being everyone but Raphael. There were four babies and five others looking for them. Raphael needed to take a minute to stare at the wall.
“Got one!” Donatello called, dragging one of the little tykes out from under the couch by it’s leg.
“Donatello!” Splinter swooped in, snatching the baby up. “That is not how you handle an infant.” He picked it up with a lot more care, grunting. “This one’s heavy. Raphael, would you take care of him?”
“Huh?” And then Raphael had yet another baby in his arms. At least this one wasn’t crying. Then he turned it to better settle in his lap and saw the tears running down its face, breath coming in fast, hiccuping little gasps. “Aw, buddy,” he muttered. “C’mere.”
He settled the baby against his chest. It pushed back, making little chirps of protest. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said, rubbing it’s shell. “I gotcha.”
“Got another one!” Michelangelo hefted a other up. It squeaked and flailed its little limbs in the air.
“Hey give ‘em here,” Raphael said. “Poor thing's freaked out.”
Michelangelo turned the baby and caught a look at the tears flooding down this one's face. “Aw mini dude, you're gonna be a-okay.” He settled on the couch next to Raphael. The two babies instantly reached for each other.
“How do you think they got down there?” Michelangelo asked, rubbing his baby's shell as the two made sad little chirps at each other.
“I dunno,” Raphael said. “Kinda weird how different they are though, for all being mutant turtles. I don't think these guys can cry like the others.”
“Mondo bizarro.” Michelangelo nodded.
“And here are three and four,” Splinter said, as he and Leonardo settled them on the couch with Raphael and Michelangelo. All four started chirping and reaching for each other. “You two are doing an excellent job with them.”
Raphael ducked his head, focusing on keeping the loudest one from toppling off the couch in its eagerness to cuddle up to the others. “It's no big deal. They're just scared, is all.”
“Still. It is an unusual and demanding situation, and all four of you are doing quite well.” Splinter glanced towards the hallway with the makeshift playpen, where the crying was tapering off but still not completely silenced. “You two remain here with these four. Leonardo, Donatello, April and I will work on soothing the rest.”
“Right on, Sen-- whoa!” Michelangelo grabbed one as Squirmy kicked it off the couch. “Uh, all for moving this to the floor?”
“As you would say, that sounds like a totally radical notion,” Raphael agreed.
-----------
It felt like hours, but eventually all the little turtles were asleep. Donatello found some mesh-- that he had been planning on using, just so you know-- in order to fill in the gaps on the playpen bars where the tiny ones wouldn't be able to slip through the cracks. Once the babies were secured, April and Irma had to duck out. Burne had threatened to fire her the last two times he’d called, and she figured she better not push her luck on the third time.
Now, that brought up the next question. “So what are we going to do?” Donatello asked. They'd clustered around the kitchen table, sensei keeping an eye on the turtlecom they'd set up as a makeshift baby monitor.
“I, I don't know.” Even Leonardo looked lost. “They're not human children. We can't just give them to the nearest orphanage. Right?” Which was a good point, they couldn’t exactly leave the turtles for the humans to raise.
“Yeah but can we really take care of them either?” Raphael pointed out. “We had a hard enough time with Tribble, and that was just one baby!” Which was, unfortunately, another good point.
“Yeah but Tribble could fly,” Michelangelo pointed out.
“But still, what's more difficult? One flying baby or sixteen not flying turtle ones?” Raphael countered.
“You have valid points, my students,” Splinter said, sighing heavily. “We are not equipped to handle so many little ones. But yet we may have to.”
Sounded about right. “That's what the note I found said,” Donatello said, nodding.
“Note? What note?” Splinter asked.
“Oh this note.” Donatello pulled it from his belt, setting it on the table. “It was taped to someone’s shell.”
It was a pretty simple note. In a hurried scrawl, whoever it was had written:
Turtles--
Keep an eye on these guys for me plz! bbl to explain. XOXO
--Renet
Donatello waited for the others to read the note. No doubt they’d soon have the same question he did.
“Okay so who's Renet?” Raphael asked.
“I think that's what we'd all like to know,” Leonardo said, frowning.
“None of you recognize this name?” Splinter asked, looking at Donatello and Michelangelo. They both shook their heads. “So, someone left these infants in our care. But we have no idea who.” He sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. “This is quite a complicated situation.”
“So… what do we do, master?” Leonardo asked.
Splinter gave a heavy sigh, staring at the turtle com. “I think, my students, I shall have to make a list of supplies for you to pick up at the store. Hopefully this Renet will return to fill us in soon, but in the meantime, we shall do our best to take care of them. If we cannot… we shall cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Do you think we’ll be able to handle Shredder and Krang, and the babies Master?” Leonardo asked.
Surely they could. Today had been rough because they’d all been upset at the same time, from getting dumped some random place in the sewer. It couldn’t be that bad the rest of the time.
But yet, the doubt on Splinter’s face rattled Donatello’s confidence too. “...I do not know. I suppose all we can do is try.”