Chapter Text
His head hurt.
Awareness beyond that trickled in slowly. His body ached. He felt like one giant, bruised fruit. The surface he was on was rough and there were…crumbs? Or little rocks? Something tiny and pokey and annoying under him, making the surface very uncomfortable to be on. They dug into his shoulder and his legs and just added to the overall feeling of ugh.
A quiet groan escaped him. What had happened?
Voices filtered in next. At least, he thought they were voices. He couldn’t make out anything they were saying, distant and muffled by ringing. Was it an alarm? Why was an alarm going off?
His head hurt.
Slowly, he pried his eyes open. It was dark. The only light around filtered in through windows on a wall to his left. That helped. That was nice. Something told him anything brighter would suck right now. But it also meant he couldn’t see much until his eyes adjusted. The most he could make out was what was immediately around him, which didn’t give much away.
He was…inside. Definitely inside. Windows meant inside. At least, he assumed so, because he could see a half moon through one of them, and the moon was outside. So if the moon was out there and he was in here, he was definitely inside, right?
Directly across from him was a broken door. The wood was splintered, like something had slammed through it. The doorknob was still intact though and for some reason he found that funny. He giggled, then immediately winced as his head pulsed in pain. Ow. Okay, no laughing.
Darn, he liked laughing.
There wasn’t much else to see from his point of view on the floor. He could make out some kinda hallway through the giant hole in the door - maybe that’s where the voices were coming from? - but that was it. He…he should probably sit up. Get a better view. Then he could figure out more.
Sitting up hurt. His arms ached like he’d done a thousand pushups and his back hurt like it’d been hit with a giant mallet. Luckily breathing was easy enough, so that was something he didn’t have to worry about. That seemed to be where his luck ended though. He fell back down twice before he successfully managed to right himself. He rested against the wall behind him, breathing heavily from the exertion. That…that shouldn’t have been that hard. Right? Something was telling him it should have been easier. Maybe he should lay back down again.
No. Wait. He’d sat up for a reason. Why? He frowned to himself. There’d been a reason, he was sure of it. Distantly he registered voices getting closer. The alarm was still ringing, which was annoying. It was interrupting his thinking.
Might as well look around until he remembered what he was doing, he mused. There’s the stuff he’d already seen - the windows, the moon, the broken door - but now he could see some other stuff. For example, the broken table. There were pieces scattered around him, the biggest two directly on his left and right. (His vision swam when he turned his head too fast to look.) Maybe that’s why the ground wasn’t comfy. He was resting on a broken table. Well that sucked. He should move…in a few minutes. He was still recovering from sitting up. That’d been hard. In the meantime, he’d keep looking.
There were some scattered chairs, all either overturned and fallen to the ground or buried under pieces of table. Across from him, next to the door, was a little coffee station, remarkably intact. That was good. The coffee machine looked like one of those fancy ones. Those were expensive.
Voices were getting louder. “-ikey?” It made his head unhappy. His head let him know it was unhappy by throbbing with pain. “Mikey?” A figure wandered past the broken door, spinning in a circle with hands cupped around their mouth as they called out. He couldn’t make out much of them, but they were tall. Taller than him? Duh, he was on the floor. Of course they were taller than him. They also had a huge backpack or something on their back. Who needs a backpack that big? “Where you at, buddy? You’re starting to freak out Raph-”
The voice stopped at the same time as the person turned to face the broken door. Good, because they were loud and loud wasn’t very nice right now. “Oh my gosh, Mikey!” Ugh, take that back, now they were louder.
The figure jumped through the hole in the door. One second they were on the far side of the room, the next they were kneeling down by him. How were they so fast? All he did was blink and it was like they teleported. That was freaky. But also cool. Freaky in a cool way. Dang, he wished he could teleport. He’d definitely use that power to teleport to bed. Bed sounded good right now.
His leg was jostled. He opened his eyes - when had he closed them? - and whined, futilely trying to pull away. His body hurt enough as is without hands on him, thanks-
“I know, I know bud, but I gotta check.” The hands went up to his thighs next, then upper arms. “-othing seems broken, so that's good. You’re definitely gonna be super bruised and sore for a while, though.” He watched the hands slide down to his wrists, coming out of the shadows and into the moonlight as they finished checking him over. His eyes widened. That hand… it was… “Damn, I wish I had my flashlight,” the person muttered, completely unaware of how his mind was exploding. “Judging by the indent in the wall, I’m guessing you didn’t have a nice landing. I’d be surprised if you weren’t concussed. I just wish I could check-”
“You’re green!” He blurted.
The hands abruptly stopped. At the same time, the voice stopped talking, but he hardly noticed because oh my gosh, that hand was green! He was probably gawking, but he couldn’t help it! There was a green hand! On him! On his…his…
“Oh my God, I’m green!”
Just like that, the blaring alarm and his aching body were forgotten. He yanked his arm up to get a better look at it and nearly toppled over for his efforts as his balance reminded him it wasn’t up to par right now. The only reason he didn’t completely tip over again was because the stranger with him caught him before he could eat concrete. Any other time, he probably woulda said thank you or something, but right now he was kinda having trouble looking at anything other than his green arm.
He turned his head to look at his other arm and saw it was also green! He was green all over! That was so cool! Wait, was it cool? Was he supposed to be green? Oh God wait what if this was a bad thing? What if he was sick? What if there was a - was a plague or something? Maybe that was why he felt so bad.
His gaze slid down to his hands and his mind exploded again. He had three fingers! Wait, did a thumb count as a finger? It didn’t matter, he quickly decided. Eyes wide with wonder, he watched his hands as he flexed each finger experimentally. They responded accordingly, confirming those were, in fact, his fingers. He closed his hand into a fist, then opened it and spread his fingers wide. Closed it. Opened it. Closed. Opened. Closed. Opened. Closed-
“-key!” Someone was talking. “Hey, you with me, buddy?”
Snapping, in front of his face. He looked up. Another green hand was doing it. He gasped. It also had three fingers! He grabbed it eagerly. “Whoa, uh-” A nervous laugh sounded as he started poking at the hand. “Whatcha doin’ there?”
He didn’t answer, too busy inspecting this new hand. Most of it was covered in a glove, leaving only the fingers exposed. He quickly took care of that, clumsily yanking off the glove until the hand was naked and bare. The person let him move their hand how he wanted to. The skin - or were they scales? - was smooth and soft, but also kinda hard. Like sequins on clothes. At the base of their fingers on their palm, they had tougher, rougher skin. Tiny, but noticeable when tracing the hand with his own fingers. There was a word for them, probably, but he couldn’t remember it right now and didn’t particularly care about it. What he was excited about was whoever this person was, they had a hand like his! He wondered how similar they were. Oh!
Like a lightbulb had gone off above his head, he eagerly pressed his hand against the stranger’s, lining up their fingers with his. Their hands weren’t just similar - they were the same! Sure, his was a little smaller, but still! They both had green hands with three fingers! And this person seemed totally fine, so it must not be the plague or something. But if it wasn’t the plague, why did he feel like he’d been hit with a hammer? Why was he green?
He looked up at them, mouth open to say something, only to stop when he saw the other green person had come into view more. Or maybe his eyes had adjusted. He wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter. He tried to tell them they had something on their face, but he wasn’t sure if he got that message across because they jolted in surprise when he clumsily raised one of his hands up to wipe the stuff off, only now it was his turn to be surprised because whoa that’s not ketchup-
They had two, bright red markings on their face. Running his hand clumsily over their face, he couldn’t feel them at all. The dude’s face was just like that. Whoa. They kinda looked like someone had taken a big bite out of a cookie. Like, a monstrous bite, unhinged their jaw and ate two-thirds of the cookie in one go. Or, like, uh… the moon! Yeah! But not the moon outside, that one was a nice big circle. No, like a uh… what’s the word… it was a type of bread too… ugh, he couldn’t remember!
“Did you just call me bread face?”
Oops, he must’ve said that out loud. Weird, he didn’t remember saying anything.
The green stranger looked conflicted, like they couldn’t decide between being upset or amused. They were smiling, but it didn’t reach their eyes. He could tell because their eyes weren’t crinkling the way they should when they were super happy. Wait. His brain did a record-scratch-freeze-frame moment. How did he know that?
His train of thought was interrupted by yelling. His head throbbed at the sound and he remembered oh yeah, his head hurt. Voices shouted in the hall. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but the green dude musta been able to because they hurriedly called back, “IN HERE!” His head pounded particularly hard at the noise. He whined and dropped the green person’s hand to cover his ears. The stranger hurriedly whispered something but he didn’t catch it, trying to block out the loudness all around him.
The high of discovering he was a green guy was wearing off, bringing all too much awareness of how he felt like he’d been run over by a bulldozer. He hurt. It felt like he’d gone four rounds with the Hulk. The worst of it was his head, but now that his excitement was wearing off he was reminded of why it had been so hard to sit up. He felt like a walking bruise. Well, not walking. He wasn’t walking right now. Right now he was curled up in the arms of some random dude who also happened to be green and desperately trying to block out how loud it was. Ugh. Why couldn’t his brain turn off sound? That should be a thing. Like. Being able to turn off your hearing. That’d be nice. He thought that’d be really nice. Especially right now.
Someone was shaking his shoulder. He groaned and tried to shrug them off. Being touched hurt, why were they touching him-
“I know, I know, big man, but we gotta get outta here.”
Big man? Outta where?
“Mikey? Angelo, can you hear me?”
He blearily opened his eyes and squinted. One…no, two. Two other people had joined him and…what’s-his-name. Green person. Maybe he should nickname them Green until he knows their name. That’s shorter than “green person.” Wait, had he gotten their name yet? Maybe he had and he didn’t remember it. Oh man, that would be embarrassing. Maybe he can nickname them until-
“Michelangelo, I need you to say something.”
Who said that? Oh, one of the new people. They were also green. Huh. Maybe everyone was green here. They also had a huge forehead-
“Has he said anything since you’ve found him, Leo?”
“Kinda? He said I’m green, then realized he was also green, then he called me bread face.” Oh, that was Green’s voice. They sounded worried. He wondered who ‘he’ was. “He’s super out of it.”
“That’s bad. That’s bad, right?” That was the third person. Dang, they were huge. And also green. Oh, maybe they were a dinosaur? Dinosaurs were big and green, right? “...Did he just call Raph a dinosaur?”
“Mikey, look at me.”
Snapping. In front of his face. He frowned and refocused his attention on, uh… Forehead guy. Why was he snapping at him? He tried to lean away from it, but an arm around his back kept him from going far. Snapping was rude and also, like, loud and annoying-
More snapping. “Mikey.”
He blinked and looked back at Forehead. “Who’s Mikey?” He hoped the guy would speak up soon. Then maybe they’d stop touching him and making loud noises. Maybe he could get some answers. Like, what was going on? Why was there an alarm? Where was he? Why did his head hurt so much? Why was everyone green?
His eyes welled with frustrated and scared tears. He didn’t know what was going on. It was loud. His head hurt. He didn’t understand.
Around him, Green, Forehead, and Dinosaur froze. The arm around his back tensed and tightened. For a minute, the only noises were his own shaky breathing and sniffles, and the alarm blaring above them.
Dinosaur spoke first.
“Home. Now.”
He was lifted. It made the world spin a little. He closed his eyes to block it out and rested his head on Green’s chest. (Distantly he registered their heart was beating, like, super fast.)
Maybe the next time he opened his eyes, the world would make sense.