Chapter Text
Raph woke up.
And he didn’t know where he was.
Raph blinked, feelings weirdly heavy. He blinked a couple more times, trying to clear the spots from his vision.
And he was met with a…reddish looking wall? Raph blinked again, grunting as he pushed himself to his feet.
Yeah. There was reddish (cherry? Raph didn’t know anything about colors, that was more of Mikey’s thing) wall. Looking around Raph noticed he was surrounded by red cherry looking walls. It was a little pinkish now that he was really looking about it. He couldn’t see through it and the floors and ceilings were reddish pinkish cherry-ish too.
A box.
Okay, Raph. He looked around, trying to squash down the panic. There was no else in the box. It was just…him.
This is fine. This is fine. This is—
Raph breathed and breathed and breathed—
This is fine, he was alone and this was fine—he wasn’t panicking h-he wasn’t—
Raph swallowed thickly and moved to feel the walls. Solid. Reddish. Pinkish. Whatever. Raph drew his fist back and punched.
He yelped and flinched back. The wall sparked where he’d punched it. It hurt. He breathed and tried again. (Punching always fixed things.)
It sparked again and Raph suppressed another yelp, and shook out his hand. It hurt. He glared at the wall and decided that… maayyybbe punching it wasn’t the best idea.
Raph hesitantly reached a hand out to touch it, he paused though. It didn’t hurt him…before he punched it.
So Raph touched the wall. It didn’t hurt. It was cold, sorta. Like a normal wall but Raph could feel something that felt like electricity. A little buzz, like one of Don’s inventions or Mikey’s and Leo’s mystic weapons or…
Raph’s brows furrowed and he rubbed the palm of his hand. His brothers…
How did he get here again?
Raph frowned and thought back.
There was some kind of villain attack at some almost closed down vintage place. It was outta the way but Raph needed to go check it out anyway. It was another heist in a long string of them, a whole lotta crimes all stacked up on one another.
His little brothers didn’t want to go, they were tired and all that. It was almost everyday there was something new. A jewelry stealing. Thug shake downs and wallet snatching. Someone breaking into some super high tech vault thing. Raph and his bros went to every single one of them. Stopping the crimes and returning the stuff.
Leo thought it weird that there were so many. Raph had brushed him off because well…Leo never was all that excited to stop crimes anyway. Not so many at least.
Maybe Raph should’ve listened to his bros.
All his bros were tired. There were so many robberies, for at least two weeks at that point. Every day, sometimes multiple times a day. Raph was tired too but he had to be a hero. He had to save people. It’s what good guys do.
So when the alarm went off, Raph let his bros stay behind. They deserved it. Raph had a responsibility and he was gonna go save the day.
Raph went and everything went wrong so quickly. They were emptying out the whole vintage shop place. And there were so many of them too. Raph tried but he was so tired and there were so many. He made too many mistakes.
Then one of them threw a weird glowy powder in his face and Raph suddenly felt very dizzy and now….
He…he was here. In the pinkish red buzzing box.
Okay. Okay, that…wasn’t good. Raph shook his head, trying to get outta the memory. This was bad. Really, really bad.
What happened to his bros? They weren’t with him when the powder hit. They were at home. Chilling. And-and now…
And now what…
Raph didn’t know what to do.
Raph frowned and thought about it. Thinking wasn’t his strong suit, that was all Dee’s thing but…but Raph could think if he tried. So, he thought.
What could he do? What could he do? What could he do?
He couldn’t punch the walls. That hurt a lot when he did that. Maybe the floor..? Yeah! Maybe punching the floor would work!
So Raph reared back.
And punched the floor.
ZzztttkCCHTZzz…zzz—
Raph yelped again and stuttered back, holding his fist close. That hurt. The floor sparked like the wall had and Raph rubbed over the hurt spot.
This was bad. If the walls were punch proof and the floors were punch proof and the ceilings…wait…were the ceilings punch proof…?
…
Raph quickly realized he couldn’t reach the ceiling. He could try jumping and punching, he could definitely do that(physically at least) but…
Raph glanced at the floor, the sparking was gone and his fist didn’t hurt so much anymore but…
Maybe he wasn’t going to try and punch the ceiling.
What was it made out of? It kinda looked like glass or…snow? It was all…sparkly…like a…crystal? This was weird. The red sorta reminded him of his mystic weapon and—
Oh! OH! How could he forget? His mystic weapon! That would get him outta this mess. (And back to his brothers, he needed to get back to his brothers.)
Raph reached for his tonfas but—
They weren’t there.
He—he— no— that—
“No, no, no, no, no, no, come on Raph—can’t be, can’t be that bad—y-you just misplaced them, that’s all,” He muttered to himself. “That’s all, that’s—”
Raph gave himself a pat down and realized with a sinking feeling that…that he didn’t have… any of his stuff with him. Everything was gone.
The wraps around his hands. Gone. His belt. Gone. His mask? Gone.
Raph swallowed thickly, breathing hard. This was bad. This was bad. This was really, really bad.
Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic—
Raph tried to keep his breathing under control as he paced.
Raph was kidnapped, he didn’t know where he was. He didn't know how to get out. His stuff was gone. Everything was gone.
Did his brothers even know he was gone? How long was he passed out for? Was there a way out of the box or was he stuff here forever? How was he gonna pee? How was he gonna eat? Was he gonna starve???????
Breath Raph— this is fine—super fine—he–he— oh god—
How was he gonna get out? How was he gonna get back to his brothers? Were they safe? Did they get kidnapped too? Oh no—they got kidnapped too—!
Raph shook his hands out, tail lashing behind him. No, no, no, no. Raph mentally chidded himself. They weren’t kidnapped. They couldn’t have been. They weren’t with Raph when he got kidnapped. So, so, so—
They were fine? Right? Right???
They had to be fine, they had to be fine, they–they had to be—or, or Raph—Raph didn’t know if—
Raph paced the length of the box, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and—
Breath Raph. He tried. Just– just breath.
This is fine. This is fine, this is fine, this just fine—
He was gonna get out of this. He was. He—he had to. He had to get back to his brothers.
It’s fine. He—he was just alone . Alone in a reddish pinkish cherry-ish sparkly glass but not see through glass box and he didn’t know how to get out.
Fine. This was fine—
Raph squeezed his eyes shut and kept whispering: “ It’s fine, it’s fine. I’M fine, Raph’s fine. Raph’ll get out and get back to my brothers, make sure they aren’t kidnapped and…and—”
Raph breathed and tried to calm down.
It didn’t work very well.
(::)
Somewhere deep in the sewers of New York, three mutant turtle teens lounged, sometimes on bean bags, sometimes not. Snacks were gathered and drinks were prepared. It was a movie night. At least that’s what it was supposed to be.
“Should we wait for Raph to start the movie?” The orange themed turtle asked, in his arms was a large bowl of popcorn, loaded with browned sugar and butter. “I mean…it’s been hours,”
The goggled turtle gasped dramatically, saying the literal word gasp along with it. “Angelo—how could you? Jupiter Jim night is sacred and you want to start it without our dear Raphael?”
The third, a red eared slider mutant, made a face. “Well…he’s got a point,” He checked his phone. “It's been…four…hours? Geez, what’s taking the guy so long?”
“Um…maybe he got held up in traffic?” The orange one supplied, eyes large. He set the bowl down. Twisting bowl around a little to some unknown standard.
“...did Raph take the Tank Dee?”
The purple turtle frowned, sharpie eyebrows furrowing. “No…he did not,”
“..oh…then…maybe there were just extra bad guys to punch?”
“Maybe…”
The three of them stood, pondering what their eldest brother could possibly be doing that was taking so long.
“Do heist missions normally take this long?” The blue themed slider asked. “Cause, I could’ve sworn we were always out in thirty minutes,”
“We were…” The tech ladened soft shell mumbled, confusion coating his words. “This is…very unusual,”
There a beat, then two, then three, before:
“Ehhh, I’m sure he’s fine. He’ll call if he needs backup or something. I bet there was just another shady activity going on, you know how he is with those,” The blue turtle smiled wide and waved a dismissive hand.
“Hm..right,” The purple one said noncommittally.
“Raph’ll be back soon…right?” The youngest asked, tone vulnerable.
The slider’s smile widened and he threw an arm around the smallest of the three. The orange one leaned into the touch. “‘Course Mikey, Raph can handle anything, remember? If he doesn’t show up in tenish minutes then we’ll shoot him a text or something,”
The box turtle frowned and still looked unsure. “I think I’ll text him right now, just to check in and stuff. He does that with us,” He pulled out his phone and started right on that.
The blue turtle looked over the orange one’s shoulder, eyes lingering on the texts sent.
“He’ll be okay Mikey, he’s our big bro. He just got caught up in something. You know how he is with hero-ing,”
The orange spotted turtle sighed softly and nodded, slipping the phone away but he smiled. “Yeah…I know, it’s just…” He sighed again. “Sorry, let’s just start the movie,”
The striped turtle hummed and walked to pick up the remote. Glancing at the youngest of their trio.
They started up the movie and they all had to wonder…
What was taking Raph so long?
(::)
Somewhere, deep, deep underground, under New York city and out from the urban area of the yokai metropolis. In a place that reeked of yokai wealth, mystics and pride.
In room choking with wards and sigils and runic arrays. With tables filled with supplies and instruments and beakers and little splices of biological material and diagrams and thought experiments and so, so many bones. Fossils, things of worlds gone and times past.
In the center of that room was a box. Somehow floating a foot or so off the ground, but sitting grounded as if it were on the meticulously clean and marbled ground itself. A mystic cage.
Perfectly square on every side, raspberry pink and impenetrable if you didn’t have the key. Opaque, until desired otherwise.
Inside that cage was a turtle. With a spiked tail and barbed shell. Young in the face and trembling from head to toe. Muttering to himself. Trying not to lose himself and stay present enough to find a way to escape.
Raph.
Sat in the box.
And tried not to cry.