Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Call him again,” Leo ordered. 

“I’ve called him seventeen times, sent him forty-one texts, and emailed him twenty-three separate threads, Leo. He’s not going to pick up on the eighteenth call,” Donnie snapped back. 

“Guys.” Leo stopped himself before he could fire another rebuttal, recognizing Raph’s tone. “Can it. This is not the time.”

After leaving to work on one of his graffiti pieces, Mikey had disappeared, his ninpo connection going dark. His three older brothers had spent a few hours trying to look for him before stopping at a metal bench facing the bay.

The turtles were three different kinds of anxious for their little brother. They all felt the cold void that used to be filled with Mikey’s ninpo, and even though Donnie’s health monitors confirmed that he was still alive, alive didn’t mean okay. 

Raph’s hands were clenched tightly in his lap, and he was trying desperately not to punch something and/or one of the twins. Leo had one of his elbows resting on his knee, the lower part of his snout clasped in it. His other knee was bouncing. He was glaring towards the horizon like it would summon their littlest brother. Donnie had summoned five different translucent violet screens, having them spread out before him like computer monitors. He was muttering something under his breath as his knee bounced as well, the same one as Leo’s.

Leo looked like he was going to say something else, never able to shut up for long, before Donnie got there first, crying, “EUREKA!” so loudly he made the tourists flinch. 

“What’d you get, Donnie?” Raph asked, not bothering to address the softshell’s horrible volume control. 

“I finally managed to activate one of my trackers! Those miscreants probably have some kind of signal interference, but I managed to bypass it. It’s a long way from where I triangulated his last known position, on an island in the Pacific.”

Wordlessly, Leo glanced at the image Donnie showed to them, before he stood up as he opened one of his hip pouches and pulled out a shard of metal. He manifested his katana with a flash of electric blue and sliced a portal open, then practically dove into it.

Raph quickly followed him through, processing a huge facility-building-thing, before he manifested his sai with his own shards of metal and began to summon his construct. 

Two violet spider-like arms shot out and caught him and Leo by the shells, lifting them into the air similarly to the way Raph would when the twins were fighting.

“Slow down, hotheads, we need a plan.”

“Smash things,” Raph answered automatically, trying to pry himself out of Donnie’s grip.

“Ninja in, get Mikey, ninja out,” Leo said at the same time, trying just as hard to get out.

Donnie sighed heavily. “I can’t believe I’m being the responsible one this time. What happened to you two trying to keep me from going semi-lethal?”

They both threw looks over their shoulder that clearly said, ‘That was not when this whole thing was happening.’ In other words, ‘That all goes out the window when Mikey is in danger.’

“Ah. Does that mean I can go fully lethal?”

“ Yes , pizza supreme in the sky please do so I can go fully lethal too!” Leo cried, kicking his legs in the air as he yanked at the arm on his shell. 

“Hey, wait, maybe not fully lethal—” Raph began, but he cut himself off with a yelp as Donnie dropped him and Leo, charging towards the building with a, “MANIACAL LAUGH!” The softshell summoned his bo with a flourish, flicked his goggles onto his eyes, and fired his hover-shell so he could fly towards the building.

Leo quickly pushed himself up and dashed after him, his speed letting him quickly overtake his twin. He sliced a portal open and reappeared a hundred metres further to really widen the distance.

Raph followed, only a little more sedately, summoning his construct so he could lengthen his strides. 

Then Donnie stopped in midair, yelling, “NARDO WAIT!”

The ensuing explosion stabbed at Raph’s heightened hearing, making him flinch. He lost control over his construct and fell to the ground, sticking the landing even as he pressed his now-empty hands over his ears. 

He looked up, and saw a smoking crater. 

Panicked, he activated his mystic sense, not seeing Leo but thank everything his ninpo was still connected to Raph—

A blue portal opened and Leo was spat out, barely managing to land on one knee, using the katana in his right hand to keep him balanced. He was smoking, his hoodie and mask singed. He would probably be complaining about that until April got him a new one. 

“Nardo!” Donnie cried, audibly concerned.

“I think there are land mines,” Leo said sarcastically, before hissing through his teeth as he gingerly pushed himself up. Courtesy of Draxum’s genetic shenanigans, the burns were already healing. He spun the katana in his right hand so it was in forward grip again. “They’ve really got an explosive aspect to them.”

Raph could feel the disappointment radiating from Donnie.

“Don’t ask him if he’s okay, Raph, he doesn’t deserve it after that .”

“Hey! You love my jokes, you can’t deny it. Yesterday we were chilling in your lab and I asked you what tests are if quizzes are quizzical and when I told you the punchline you laughed! You record everything, why don’t we take a look at your files right now?” Leo crossed his arms, having let his katana disappear.

“Little orange brothers first, Nardo! Good luck with the land mines!” Then he flew off with a streak of purple. 

Raph and Leo watched him go, before the snapper said, “He’s getting better at deflecting. You need to stop teaching him things.”

Leo spluttered. “I’m not teaching him anything!”

Raph waved a hand. “Sure, Leon. Good luck with the land mines.”

Spoiler, Leo did not brave the landmines again. He instead waited for his brothers to fight their way through the security measures, before focusing on their ninpo and slicing open a portal right on top of them. He scared the living daylights out of them, and sent a few filing cabinets crashing to the floor as he fell on top of them.

“Revenge for the landmines, hermanos!” he crowed, arranging himself so he was laying on his side with one hand propping up his chin. 

Donnie shoved him off and smacked him over the head with his bo, primly fixing his goggles before turning said bo into what resembled a rocket launcher and aimed it at a random wall. 

“Angelo is behind there. Shall I crack it open?”

Raph got up, Leo dangling off his neck and avoiding his spikes like he’s had since they’d been tots. He punched his fists together with a crackle of red energy.

“Nah. Let Raph do it.”

“Oh-ho-ho~” Leo hopped off of Raph, then stabbed one of his katana into the floor and leaned on it, a shit-eating smirk on his face. 

Donnie stepped aside, the extensions folding back up until his bo was a bo again. 

Raph wound up and slammed his fist into the wall, smashing a huge hole into it. 

“Mikey!” all three brothers cried at once as they squinted through the cloud of dust, before they were hit with a choking smell. 

“Eugh, why does it smell like burning plastic?” Donnie asked, wrinkling his nose.

Chapter Text

Donnie didn’t tell his brothers, but he had sent out a tiny technological creature to download every single thing the institute—which he now knew was the EPF—knew about them. For record’s sake, of course.

Suffice to say, it was a lot. 

A staggering amount, and there was somehow so much but so little at the same time. 

They knew the order of their ages, they knew that their ninpo wasn’t quite mystic, they knew how attached they were to each other. And yet somehow, they decided that the best way to get one of them to join their ranks was to convince the chosen turtle that all of his brothers were dead. They also didn’t know about Donnie’s trackers and various subdermal monitors. 

But what Donnie focused on was the footage of the interrogation room. 

Turned out, the EPF made a deal with someone in the Hidden City, and purchased a lot of mystic-dampening metal, which they put in the walls and in the cuff on his wrist. They built it specifically for Mikey, because they knew it would cut off his connection to mystic. He was pretty sure the fact that it cut off their ninpo connection was not at all intentional, and a happy (for them) coincidence.

Then he found the camera footage. 

Specifically, the footage of his brother’s meeting with one of the EPF’s agents. 

He sat there, his fingers intertwined and his chin resting on top, watching the footage. 

He saw Mikey wake up and take stock; good. He saw the agent walk in, watched him sit down. They spoke for a few seconds, Donnie noticed the agent’s shoulders tense after Mikey made a joke almost as bad as Leo’s; good. 

But then the agent took out three photos and spread them across the metal table. 

Donnie paused the footage and zoomed in on the pictures, then had to quickly rotate his chair in the other direction before he could throw up. 

Keep it down, Vomit-tello.

He didn’t get a good look, but he knew it was something with lots of gore, and he did not really want to see it. 

He sat back in his chair, fidgeting with the blanket draped over his legs. 

Did he really want to know what it was? Because he could call Leo and he would not tell a soul; one of many good things about him that Donnie wished he was better at articulating. 

They’d done a lot of illegal things together. Especially when they were younger.

How likely was it that Leo was awake? Pretty likely, maybe because he felt like he’d need to watch over Mikey. 

Donnie called him on their comms. 

“Leon speaking~” he answered. “What’s up, Don-tron?”

“I have a picture of something gross and would like you to come look at it and translate it to me so I know what it is without having to look at it myself because I tried and almost unwillingly emptied the contents of my stomach,” he responded bluntly.

“Ah. I gotchu, hermanito. Give me a sec.”

They hung up and a blue portal opened, before Leo stepped through. He caught sight of what was on Donnie’s monitor, and made a face. 

“Eugh boy. I can see why you almost threw up.”

“What is it?”

Leo put the palms of his hands together in front of his face, taking in a deep breath. 

“Um. All of us shot in the head? The quality of the photos is surprisingly good considering they’re forged, the gore is pretty realistic and looks accurate, somebody did their research. I would rate it a five out of ten. Five points deducted because it’s us.”

Donnie did notice Leo’s rating, was grateful that his twin remembered his ‘data collection calms me down’ quirk, then was glad his twin existed, and then once again wished he could articulate it better. 

He wished he had articulated it better before Leo had ordered CJ to close the portal.

Something compelled him to open his arms for a hug. It may or may not have been to distract from the thoughts. 

Leo brightened instantly, before approaching his twin and accepting the hug. 

“What’s this for?”

Donnie thought about it, trying to find the words. “Thank you for your extended existence.”

He felt Leo tilt his head. “You’re welcome?”

Donnie squeezed tighter; for the genius that he was, he could never find the right words for his feelings. 

He gently drew away, and asked, “Would you like to watch the rest of the footage with me?”

“Sure. Um, but…where did you get this footage from?”

“Uhh…Don’t worry about it.”

He quickly turned his chair back towards the screen, had an unpleasant reminder of why he had turned it away in the first place, and swivelled back around. 

“Please zoom out, Nardo,” he choked out, clutching the armrest of his chair like it could keep him from throwing up.

“Oh! Oh, shit—” Leo quickly reached around Donnie, one arm on each side not unlike a hug, most likely hitting the “ctrl” and scrolling with the scroll wheel on Donnie’s mouse. 

Donnie took even, measured breaths through his nose, unintentionally absorbing his twin’s scent, which further aided in relaxing him. 

“We’re good, Tello,” Leo told him. “How’re you doing?”

“Better.”

“We still watching together?”

“Yes.” He turned his chair around again, trusting his twin to have zoomed out from the photos. “Would you like to start from the beginning?”

“Sure.”

He scooched over in his seat, and Leo slotted himself beside him. He draped his blanket over his twin, then rewound to the beginning before he pressed play.

He watched again as Mikey came to and took stock, glancing at his twin to see him nodding his approval. He saw Leo’s grin when Mikey arranged into a posture reminiscent of him, and smiled when he laughed at Mikey’s bad joke. 

They watched as Mikey tore off the cuff on his wrist, throwing it onto the floor with a reverberating ‘CLANG’. They watched as he jumped onto the table, crouched, and yanked the agent halfway out of his seat. Smoke began curling from the fabric in Mikey’s grip, and the air wobbled from the heat. 

At that point, Donnie saw that Leo had somehow procured a bag of goldfish crackers—probably from his shell—and had begun crunching on them like popcorn. Donnie reached over and stole a handful. 

Mikey leaned in close, mystic flames appearing and licking the agent’s shirt, “I’m not gonna work for you. I’m gonna burn this whole place to the fucking ground. I will incinerate you until there’s nothing left—”

The twins exchanged looks.

The wall crashed open, making the mic peak, and they heard their voices on the playback. 

Donnie paused the playback. 

They sat there, absorbing the information. 

“He was gonna kill that guy,” Leo said, a little bit of awe creeping into his voice.

“Yes,” Donnie agreed. “Yes, he would’ve, if we were any later.”

“Sometimes I forget that Dr. Delicate Touch is also Mikey.”

“Mm.”

“So we’re telling Raph about this, right?”

“Yep.”

Chapter Text

Mikey walked into the living room, returning from visiting April at the apartment she shared with Sunita, Casey, and CJ, and was met with his three older brothers facing him. Raph was in one of their biggest armchairs, and the twins were slotted together in the orange beanbag.

He stopped in place and blinked. “What’s this for?”

“Hey, Big Man, how was your visit?” Raph asked. 

“Good. What…” he began gesturing to his brothers with a hand, before realizing. “This is about what happened last week, isn’t it, Donald?” He shot a look at Donnie, who flinched. 

He grumbled under his breath, before sighing and sitting back in the beanbag. “Yes, I acquired the footage from the EPF.” Mikey drooped a little when he realized the implications. Donnie seemed to notice, as he raised his hands placatingly. “All three of us hold no judgement for what you did.”

“I almost killed a guy,” Mikey said quietly, avoiding eye contact as he fidgeted with his hands by picking at his nail polish. “I probably gave him first-degree, if not second-degree burns.”

“Yep,” Leo said, finally speaking up. “And we caused what was probably millions in property damage. Raph and Donnie probably made a bunch of hospital patients. We knocked over a bunch of filing cabinets—”

“ You knocked over a bunch of filing cabinets,” Donnie cut in, not even pausing the scrolling on his phone to do so.

Leo airily waved a hand. “Yeah, yeah, anyways, we did our own damage. And the guy had it coming. He was an asshole.”

“ Leo .”

Leo held out his hands palm-up and twisted in the beanbag to throw Raph a look. “What, I’m an adult!”

Raph sighed. 

“What we’re trying to say is, whether you would’ve killed that guy or not, we would still love you. We wouldn’t forgive ya—” Mikey’s heart dropped, his shoulders tensing up, “—because there’s nothing to forgive.” Mikey relaxed, letting out a quiet breath. “The guy made a big mistake by making you think we were dead, and that’s on him. In fact…” Raph sat back. “We’d help you bury the body, big man.”

The twins nodded. 

“Hydrochloric acid is quite adept at dissolving dead bodies,” Donnie said.

“I’ve testified for April, uh…three times now.” Leo held up a three-fingered hand. “I’d testify for you, too.”

Mikey smiled. He loved his big brothers so much. 

“So if I want to raze the entire facility…” he started, itching to destroy the organization that even tried to separate them.

“Yes,” Donnie said instantaneously, looking up from his phone.

“I’ll help,” Leo added. 

“Whoa, hold up guys, let’s evacuate the people first.”

Mikey looked at him. “I thought you said you’d help bury the bodies?”

“I did, big man, but only for the agent, who was a huge jerk. But the other workers…d’you know who was involved with the plan and who wasn’t? D’you know who deserves to be burned with the building and who deserves to be let free?”

Mikey’s head instinctively sank a little into his shell at that, guilt blooming in his chest. It seemed so obvious when Raph pointed it out. “...No.”

“There ya go. So if you do want to get rid of the building, we gotta get all the people out first, okay?”

The twins put up two thumbs-ups, and Mikey nodded. 

“Great.” Raph got up. He walked towards Mikey. 

And wrapped him in a hug. 

Mikey melted into it, feeling much better in the security of his big brother’s arms. 

“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” Raph stated. 

“Raaaaaaph…” Mikey whined, squirming in Raph’s hold but not enough to escape.

“Never~”