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alostnarrator · 11 months

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To Save Yourself- Chapter 1: MIKEY!!

Summary:

What do you do when you wake up in an entirely new world, with a family that isn't really your own? Well, Mikey has no idea, and it doesn't look like Dr. Delicate Touch will be helping his new situation any time soon. As Mikey gets adjusted to this new family he starts to learn more about what his other self has to deal with.

Note: I wrote this well over a year ago. Looking back, I can tell I've improved. Some things to note are that: 1) The way I protray the 2012 family is incredibly out of character/canon and should in no way be interpreted as my actual view on the characters, 2) I do not condone [abuse, neglect, bullying, violence, (implied) trans/homophobia] nor am I trying to glorify future events in the story, 3) the story is a bit fast paced and unclear at times, and I apoligize in adavnce. This story is angst for the sake of being angst, please move on if that isn't your taste. Read tags for more.

Mikey’s head throbbed as he slowly sat up.

“Aw man!” He hissed while rubbing his neck, “I should not have watched that extra episode last night!” His vision was still blurry as he rolled over the side of his bed. Mikey yawned loudly while stretching, and he blindly reached for his clock.

“What in the?!” Mikey let out a small scream when his vision adjusted. This wasn’t his room! Suddenly through the wall Mikey heard a gruff voice yell, “Can it, idiot! It’s too early for your shit!” Mikey’s eyes were dinner plates as he stumbled backwards. His hand hit something solid and it clattered to the ground. Picking it up, Mikey’s hands shook as he looked over the picture. It was another turtle in an orange mask, but this turtle was freckled and cuddled a ice cream cat to his face. His finger traced over the freckles on the other turtle.

“Where the hell am I?” Mikey whispered, pocketing the photo in his pouch once he freed it from the frame. A sudden banging at the door startled Mikey into popping into his shell. Maybe, if he just played it cool, he could sleep off whatever fever dream this was.

“C’mon Mikey,” A new, oddly whiny voice groaned from the other side of the door.

“Master Splinter wants us to start training today early.” The voice retreated complaining about blueprints and coffee. Mikey heaved in panicked breaths inside his shell. “It’s okay Micheal, you’re Dr. Delicate Touch! You’ve beat up mystic forces and thrown buildings at aliens! Ain’t nothing like a bad dream gunna stop THE Michelangelo!” Victoriously Mikey sprang up, feeling motivated with new vigor. It seemed that he’d need to use his mad ‘squillz’ to get to the bottom of this weird situation.

Quietly, and oh-so gently, Mikey crept down the short hallway, looking over a large open area. It was, thankfully, devoid of any weird copy turtles, so Mikey decided to just play it cool until he could “properly assess the situation” as D would put it. The slightly shaking turtle followed the sound of grunting and blows landing past what looked to be a subway ticket entrance, and down another small hallway. Surprisingly enough, Mikey found himself face to face with a tree. He could see three other turtles in the room, and a tall and slender rodent mutant watched over them. The rat man sat with a cup of tea, a jade cane of sorts sat within reach. An odd look crossed his face when the oddly familiar red masked turtle pinned the blue one to the ground.

“No.” He scolded chastly, “Again.” ‘Red’ muttered something angrily under his breath before the two bowed with a quick ‘yes sensei’ and returned to their sparring.

Mikey hid in the shadows, carefully observing, when he caught the purple masked turtle’s eye. He gulped when a stern look made its way onto Purple’s face, a small hand motion beckoning him forwards.

“Really Mikey? How mature of you, trying to hide instead of train.” Purple chastised him in a condescending tone. The rat made no move to stop him, so Purple grabbed his staff from where it was sitting and approached him. Mikey’s back hit the tree when Purple lowered himself into a fighting stance. It was seconds before Mikey found the breath knocked from his lungs and his plastron suddenly being very friendly with the floor.

“OW! What’s wrong with you?!” Mikey yelped as his arm was twisted just a bit too much for his liking. “Donetello.” The voice of the rat seemed to dismiss Purple, or Donetello apparently, and Mikey could breathe again. Just as Mikey was on his own two feet again a firm hand grabbed him by the arm. “Was wondering if you were going to skip out on us or not.” Red, which he guessed would be Raph, sneered at him. “I mean, if you’d rather watch your dumb baby cartoons instead of training like the teenage ninja you really are , then be our guest.” Mean Raph added a ‘it’d just make training better and easier for us’ and said something about babysitting him before rat- Splinter hit him over the head with his cane.

“Raphael. Do not speak to your own brother in such a way.” He scolded coldly. Splinter nodded at Donnie to get into position and Bl- Leo tossed a pair of nunchucks at him. “You left your nunchucks in the living room, again ” Blatant annoyance was written all over Leo’s face. What was happening? It’s like he was suddenly sucked into another world, cuz he knows his arm still hurts from D, but these were definitely not his brothers. Donnie once again lowered into a fighting stance, the two of them slowly circling around. Mikey silently followed suit, no longer having the energy to fight this entire situation.

- - - - -

“Y-you’re cheating!” Donnie cried out incredulously as Mikey pinned him again. They had spent the last few hours sparring, and none of them reacted well to this ‘sudden change in skill level’. Mikey was confused as to how the supposed ‘other him’ could seriously be weak enough to be pinned by these versions of his brothers. Sure, they were well trained, but their skills were limited to one style of fighting and they were all painfully traditional. Splinter would yell at him for not ‘doing it properly’, even if it meant Mikey would be sacrificing a serious advantage he had over the others. These brothers acted as though he was a co-dependant child, and seriously weak to top it off. Could Splinter really be so blind as to ignore what a step up it would be for them to learn other fighting styles?

After the attack of the Kraang, Mikey and his brothers took it upon themselves to learn new moves. Mikey got really into capoeira, and April taught him a little kickboxing. The orange-clad turtle remembered fondly the following sparring sessions and getting to see just how far everyone had come since they started even playing with the idea of being heroes. He couldn’t let his thoughts distract himself for long though, all too quickly Raph stomped towards him. Splinter’s sharp voice cut through the air like a sharpened knife, “Begin.”

Raph’s moves were predictable, they were aggressive and Raph was far too focused on getting Mikey knocked on his ass. Mikey internally scoffed, even his own brothers would overlook his observational skills sometimes. Course, they wouldn’t get away with that shit. But these guys? Something tells him that their Mikey didn’t get the option to stand up for himself.

‘These guys are lucky as hell right now!’ Mikey grumbled to himself internally while deflecting another attack, ‘If I was more mentally here they wouldn’t hear the end of it from me!’ Sadly enough Mikey’s emotional and mental functions weren’t “all there” at the moment. A soft whimper left him as he yearned for his brothers. For his bed. For a god damned HUG. It felt like a piece of him got ripped out, and was still back with his brothers. He hated how oddly pliant and ‘checked out’ the harsh words and cold comments from this family made him. It almost felt as though his head was stuffed with cotton, it gummed up his emotional processing and made it harder to think.

Mikey floated in his mental ocean until he finally heard Splinter dismiss them. For the first time in hours Mikey surfaced, gasping desperately at air he so craved. Internally he gulped down the moments of silence like a man in a desert, his thoughts slowly catching up to him as he sat by the tree to think. Raph and Leo could be heard loudly arguing in the supposed living room about god knows what, and he was pretty sure Donnie had gone off to check his lab for something. As nice as the peace felt, sitting alone in this open room left Mikey feeling more vulnerable than he was comfortable with.

On his way to the room he woke up in, Donnie stepped in to block his path. Wordlessly he wiped a cotton pad on his face. “Yooo, what’s that for Donnie?” Mikey laughed nervously as Donnie squinted at it. Mikey’s words seemed to register for Donnie as he jumped a little and only spared a short glance towards Mikey.

“O-Oh this? Don’t worry about it Mikey, you wouldn’t understand anyways.” He waved his free hand dismissively as he exited the hall. Donnie had wiped away some of his sweat from the training with that, but why? A sudden figure of his genius older brother appeared in his mind, smugness radiating from him.

“Ah HAH! Finally one of you calls for MY help instead of Mind Raph!” He boisterously bellowed, “So what can I do for you dear Micheal?” The familiar face and name helped calm his mind and put a small smile on his face. “I’m in a real bad twist here bro! This new Donnie is doing a- no doubt- science thing with my sweat! But why?!” Mind Donnie tented his fingers, his meticulously drawn on eyebrows pitching upwards as he pondered the question. “Well,” He said after a solid minute of nothing, “I’ve taught you about this. If this were me, why would I be interested in harvesting sweat samples from you?” Mikey thought hard back to the slightly complicated science lessons from D. Sweat… sweat, what was the use of sweat?

Mikey thanked and dismissed Mind Donnie as he plopped back down on other him’s bed. Normally Mikey would crank up his mixtape and draw to help him process the information, but now he was left to his own devices. The room was littered with comics and pizza boxes, but Mikey scoped out an ancient box of mostly broken crayons, and some crumpled and stained sheets of paper. Mikey began to softly sketch his brothers while he thought about the cotton pad. He had Raph, April, and Leo roughly drawn when it dawned upon him. “DANA!” He triumphantly yelled, jumping up on the bed and sending crayons flying. “It’s d-n-a, you nitwit.” Mind Donnie muttered half heartedly, no real bite behind his words. The lesson on DNA and its importance came to mind as Mikey stood on the bed. D had taught him about it while testing dads dna compared to the four of them. A sudden pit of dread opened up in Mikey’s stomach as he bolted out his other Mikey’s door.

“HEEEYYYY Donnieeee!” Mikey sidled up to Donnie’s side, an awkward grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. He did his best to lean over the turtle, the height difference only hindering his efforts slightly. Donnie grumbled something under his breath while setting down the vile he had been holding. A tired and irritated sigh left Donnie as he turned to face the “younger” turtle.

“Michelangelo, what have I told you about coming into my lab?” His voice was soft, but oddly hostile. When Mikey only gave him a small awkward chuckle the taller turtle grabbed the tails of his bandana.

“Woah HEY-” Mikey panicked as he got dragged from the lad, in his panic he successfully knocked over the weird vile. “Jeez Donnie! Just wanted to ask about….” Mikey carefully considered his words, basing them off of the other turtles expectations on his character, “sciency stuff. Thought you’d be able to do your weird… nerd thing and teach me.” It felt odd to act like this. He felt a little stupid to be honest. Distantly he remembered how his brothers would treat him like a child until he rightly corrected them. He wasn’t a child, nor was he an idiot! It’s not his fault he has a hard time sitting still long enough to pay attention to normal lessons.

Donnie’s eyes narrowed at him in suspicion. “Is that so? And why should I humor you Michelangelo? Last time you asked for a lesson you got distracted every twenty seconds and messed up my lab!” Mikey was going to need a hoodie if the entire family was going to treat him so coldly all the time. But if this was Donnie, then Mikey knew something he wouldn’t be able to deny.

“I just… I wanna spend time with my bro. I feel like you’ve just been shutting me out Donnie. I need my brother!” Mikey teared up, using this as an outlet to let out some of the pent up emotions he’s had since waking up. The purple masked turtle’s eyes widened a fraction before he hung his head guiltily. “I… I’m sorry Mikey, I had no idea you felt so alone…” Donnie held a hand out, an olive branch.

- - - - - -

The lesson had actually been fun, Donnie was able to remember to take things slowly and keep them interesting. Mikey found himself genuinely smiling despite his circumstances. Of course, the happy moment couldn’t last forever.

“Yo Dorkatello-” Raph stopped mid knock as he looked in disbelief between Donnie and Mikey. Raph scoffed and grinned, “Well ain’t this a surprise.” Raph leaned against the door to the lab. Mikey tensed, ready to bolt if this got out of hand. Donnie smiled softly and rubbed his neck.

“Mikey asked for a lesson. It’s been going… really well actually.” Raph let out a huff of a laugh.

“Well I’ll be.” Raph, now standing much closer, patted Mikey’s head. It was a little rough, but he could almost feel the praise behind it. A small blossom of hope bloomed in Mikey, ‘Maybe’ he thought ‘Maybe things won’t be so bad while I’m stuck here.’

Raph started for the door, “C’mon nerd, Leo’s got a mission.” Mikey stood to follow, but once they got to the living room he was stopped. “A mission that definitely does not include you.” Raph frowned at him and he began to protest. “Look kid, one good lesson doesn’t change shit. We don’t need to be fighting and babysitting. You’re still under house arrest until we see that you’re finally mature enough to be out with us.”

The blossom wilted as the two turtles walked towards where the dojo was. Hot, angry tears flooded down his face in rivers. “I am NOT a child.” He hissed with a deadly venom in his voice, but the others couldn’t hear him. He suddenly felt drained, his were like weights as Mikey flopped down on his new bed. He couldn’t help himself anymore as he allowed himself to break down. He sobbed, holding a pillow in his arms as his chest heaved. He’s never felt this hopeless, not even when the Kraang invaded. Not when the shredder almost killed his brothers. Not when Big Mama made New York her new battle nexus. But those times were different, he’d had his brothers by his side in one way or another. He could go and seek out hugs and comfort when the fight was over.

Now he was alone

Now he had no one to turn to

No one to go to

But… he had to stay determined. His brothers would stop at nothing to find him and bring him home. But until they do, Mikey swore to figure out if it’ll be safe for other Mikey to come back here. Because that's what a hero would do. And he'll be damned if he'd let his other self suffer.

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