[LN] Raphael is cool but rude, Michelangelo is a party dude...

[othersdestructive]

"Jus' - jus' five more minutes, Master Splinter."

Come on, it'd been a busy night. Couldn't he sleep in just a little bit longer?

Except...except he wasn't in the lair.

As Raph opened his eyes, he realized he wasn't even in the city.

New York was New York and after spending the majority of his life under it, and exploring every facet of it from above after he and his brothers had started exploring at night, it was practically in his blood.

Wherever he was now, it didn't look like New York, it didn't sound like New York - it definitely didn't smell like New York.

And his head felt like it'd been cracked open and...something was rushing in. Something unnameable and shifting. It was making even his memories fuzzy. It was almost like something that wasn't himself was trying to push in and make...something else into himself. For a moment, all he could do was push himself up onto his knees and hunch over, holding his head in his hands.

"Ugh, my head."

Comments

[bestnamer]

"Why do I really feel like saying 'cowabunga?'"

Mikey was not as quick to realize that they weren't in New York as Raph was, but the rising fog that filled his brain with stuff he was sure was pop-culture, but no pop culture he was familiar with, cleared quickly when he started to process where they were.

It looked like a carnival, abandoned for the night - no, possibly abandoned for the duration. There was a lot of space of flattened grass between the rides, like more had been there until recently, and the ones that still stood were only just beginning to lean, or grow rust. Litter still covered the grass, candy bar wrappers, soda cans, and tons of fluttering napkins.

A sudden loud flap behind them turned out to be a tentflap blowing in the wind, but Mikey didn't process that before he'd shrieked briefly with surprise. Above them, a dented, rusted sign demanded that they "Come See the Freaks!"

"Woah. Uh. A little on the nose there, mysterious transportation forces."

Deeply, deeply freaked out - Mikey was not as attached to New York as Raph (who was?) but he'd seen places like this in movies (ones where bad things happened to decent dudes) - he looked around for signs of the rest of his brothers. "Donnie? Leo? C'mon guys, this looks just like the set of 'Beltsander 4.' Jumping out and scaring us now would NOT be cool."

[othersdestructive]

Urge to crack wise even though there was nothing to crack wise about so. Strong. But his head started to clear enough that Raph was able to finally get it together and get to his feet.

"Where in the heck are we? And how did we get here?"

Okay, list of bad things:

Creepy amusement park, check. No idea how he'd gotten here, check. No Leo or Donnie in sight, also check. And a head that felt like it was filled with mashed potatoes and stupid pop culture references, checkity check.

The list of good things:

Mikey was here so at least he had one bro, check. Sais, check. Smoke bombs, check. And they were at least conscious and not waking up captured or surrounded by enemies. In fact, after some looking around, it seemed there weren't any enemies in sight.

Weird. You'd think if they woke up in some strange place and didn't remember how they'd gotten there that there'd be some bad guy shenanigans going on.

Since there weren't and Mikey was currently terrified, naturally Raph had to take advantage of it. Reaching down and grabbing a broken and rusty amusement park "you must be this tall to ride this ride" sign that had a creepy clown face on it, he held it up behind Mikey and tapped him on the shoulder so he'd turn around to find it right in front of his face.

[bestnamer]

"What?"

Raphael is a giant jerk, let it be known. Mikey let as much of the world as was within hearing range know with a loud scream, followed by a CLANG as he punched the clown sign on pure, deeply-ingrained ninjutsu training.

[othersdestructive]

Raph had been smart enough to hold it so it wasn't slammed in his face when Mikey inevitably punched it out of his hand.

At Mikey's scream, he leaned over and slapped his thigh as he laughed.

"Too easy. And don't look at me like that. We're somewhere far from home, however we got here. I wanted to see something familiar: you freaking out."

[bestnamer]

"Not cool, bro. Not. Cool. Weren't you listening when I told Donnie and Leo that wouldn't be cool? Just because I didn't say you didn't mean I didn't mean you, too!"

Incapable as ever of holding a grudge, Mikey rubbed the back of his head and looked around.

"You . . . wanna go see if we can find a part of the creepy abandoned carnival that's less creepy?"

It was better than standing around under a sign for a freak show, by the open black maw of a tent Mikey fervently hoped was empty.

[othersdestructive]

"Or see if we can find Leo and Donnie."

Raph suddenly lurched forward, holding his hands to his head again.

"Just duct tape it up, I'm fine!"

"- Oh, so that's the plan from the "great leader," huh? Just sit here on our butts -"

"Cowabunga!"

He dropped to his knees, gasping.

"My brain feels like mush. Are you getting a head ache too? I keep having - having this weird feeling like my brain's getting all split up or something and I keep having this urge to yell..weird stuff."

No way he was admitting he kept wanting to yell 'Cowabunga.'

[bestnamer]

"You mean like, 'cowabunga dude?'"

Possibly Mikey was way too used to the feeling of mush-brain. It certainly wasn't putting him on his knees the way it was Raph, but yes, he did feel weird. Like there were too many memories in his head. Except that he couldn't remember the memories.

"Man, I can't believe I've never said that before. It feels so natural. Have I said that before? Are things memories if you can't remember them?"

[othersdestructive]

"You've never said that before and you'd better not start because it sounds ridiculous. Like you're some corny throwback to the eighties."

Raph was far more aware of the mush because usually there was no mush. Usually his mind was sharp and alert and ready to snap off some brotherly mockery or a punch to a bad guy's face at a moment's notice. And this was an intrusion something crawling its way in from the outside, messing with his sense of self. So he noticed the whispers and echoes of lives he never lived trying to impress themselves onto his reality.

He knew who he was. Maybe he was moody sometimes and angry and had trouble figuring his feelings out but he knew who he was and these other people that were trying to crawl their way in were not him, even if the many windows that were opening in his head because of them opened to scenes that still had his brothers in them.

And for someone like him that had a hard enough time working out feelings and such, it was too much.

Especially when the rage came flooding in like a dam had broken. It bloomed in his chest, spread through every inch of him. So much anger - and for once it wasn't all his.

"You are so smug, you know that? You think the world revolves around you, don't you! That we couldn't possibly survive without the mighty and powerful Leonardo to guide us through our problems, huh? Well, I got a newsflash for you - we got along just fine without you!"

"Maybe I'll just take my attitude and leave!"

"Why are you always telling me what to do?"

The roar came from seemingly nowhere, but something that came from nowhere couldn't have that much anger in it. So that made it even more bizarre because nothing was going on that could've made him that angry. Nothing was going on that should've been able to make anyone that angry.

Afraid - because his brother was so near and he wasn't sure he could control it - he started pounding his fists into the dirt, trying to direct it all somewhere harmless.

Unlike Mikey, who was essentially having multiple other party dudes being layered on in varying levels of party dude-ness, most of the lives that the forces in this worlds were mucking up his head with were a little more...tumultuous. And many of them were ragey. And they were very strong personalities.

[bestnamer]

Raph freaking out even more than normal was freaking Mikey out even more than normal, too.

Maybe the multiple party-dude layers were helping with that, because he certainly could have felt less chill in this situation. Not that he felt very chill then, but still, he was just chill enough to figure out what to do.

"Hug it out, bro, hug it out!"

He grabbed Raph in a hold that was much more a snuggle than a restraint. Hey, it had worked once.

[othersdestructive]

Everything hurt when Raph came to. His head hurt, his toes hurt, even his shell hurt. While they'd been out, they'd apparently gotten the beating of a lifetime and their newfound durability hadn't tempered it in the least.

The pain was the first thing he was aware of, but the fact he was bound was what he was aware of next. His wrists were tied together with thin cord, tightly, and so were his feet. It looked like all of his weapons had been confiscated. Not even a single throwing star was left.

"Mikey!" He called out, moving his head to look around, but he had to stop because he realized rope was digging into his neck, too. It was then that he became aware of the fact he was bound to his brother, shell to shell. A rope was tied around their waists, and another was around their necks, making it so if either of them struggled too much, they'd choke themselves and each other. Underneath the rope, he felt some kind of metal collar. "Mikey, you still with me?"

His vision was still too blurred and the rush of wind made it so he couldn't figure out where they were yet - or if their attackers were still with them.

[bestnamer]

"If I pretend hard enough, think I could not be?"

An idle joke, because Mikey would hardly leave Raph alone in this sort of situation. Even though he hurt like someone had been using him for a punching bag in his sleep. Or like someone Trunchbull-sized had been jumping up and down on him. Oddly enough, that was now a possibility.

"Did they beat you up in your sleep too?"

[othersdestructive]

"Yeah," he said, voice still raspy from the tear gas. "Nothing permanent - I think - what about you?"

That was the most important part, making sure he was generally okay. Then they'd worry about what to do next and if their enemies were still here.

It was driving him crazy that his eyes were still tearing so much he couldn't see well.

[bestnamer]

"I feel like our punching bag must feel," Mikey moaned, quietly, because his throat still hurt a whole lot.

"Are - are we flying?"

He'd gotten less tear gas to the eyes than Raph, and he could feel wind, could KIND of see some distance between them and the ground . . . and could definitely feel whatever they were sitting on squirming.

"Is this a skywhale or something?"

[fearasaurusrex]

"It's a mass of fearlings - or a massive fearling. It depends on how you see it; they are something of a collective," said the same voice that had taunted them earlier.

The man started to walk back and forth in and out of the line of sight of each of them. He was dressed in a very expensive looking suit and wore a pair of sunglasses.

He knelt near Michelangelo and lowered his sunglasses so that Mikey could see the glass eye. It had a smiley face on it. Behind him stood the Trunchbull and Bloody Mary.

"I'd explain further but it doesn't matter. To each person I give their own fitting bad ending. Your story can't possibly continue if we're to finish our work and that means we can't just kill you. The very idea of you must be destroyed in the eyes of the children or they'll just keep pulling in other versions of you. They love you too much."

[othersdestructive]

"What are you even talking about? You're crazy."

This guy sounded bonkers. What story? What did he mean the idea of them had to be destroyed?

"If you don't let us go you're going to regret it even more when we do get free."

[bestnamer]

"It's the Taunting Ginger! That's not gonna be his permanent name."

Mikey leaned back with a discomforted squeak as the guy stared at him with the smiley glass eye. Nobody this bonkers should have something on him that looked so happy.

"Wait, so, you're about stories, and you want to destroy us, but not just US, the story of us, which . . . people know somehow?"

There wouldn't be any need to destroy the idea of them, their story, if people weren't hearing it. Science.

"Did we get famous without me noticing?"

[fearasaurusrex]

"Yes, you did. This is a different world, one where your reality is someone's story. The universe is just that infinite, you know. Every reality is a story in some world somewhere and every story is someone's reality. I myself live in a world with certain rigidly defined rules that is an action movie to one world, and a movie about an action movie to this one. But your story ends now. Those collars will block any power that you might have gleaned from the children of this world and I've put in a call or two to the right authorities. Made some arrangements."

He stood up and crossed over into Raph's line of sight, lowering his eyeglasses so he could see the smiley face false eye, too.

"They children will see you beaten and battered. And then they'll see you dragged away, doomed to die in some government lab somewhere. That's all that it will take to destroy the idea of you and your brothers."

[othersdestructive]

Everything was cold. That was the first thing Raph was aware of Cold metal, cold shackles around everything. Whoever had them now was being very careful. The metal cot had been set up so that cushions were in place to keep him from rolling around on his shell. Shackles pinned him to the examination table wt his ankles knees, upper thighs, wrists, elbows and neck.

There was even a muzzle over his mouth so he couldn't bite the scientists that were now milling around them.

The room they were in looked almost hermetically sealed, as if they had fears about contagions, but the strange thing was that the clear walls had symbols carefully painted over all of them, strange runes that seemed protective in nature or meant to lock something in.

"Mikey!" Raph called out, his voice still slurred from the sedative. "Mikey, are you there?! Are you okay?!"

He could see what was possibly his brother out of the corner of his eye, shackled to another examination table, this one set upright.

[fearasaurusrex]

"Subject T-15 has regained consciousness. BPM of 40, BP is 100 over 60 and rising," muttered one of the scientists puttering around. They were wearing rubber scrubs that made them look like something out of a movie about an epidemic but not the full rubber suits typical of said movies, as if they had already tested the two to make sure they weren't contagious with anything.

[bestnamer]

"Why's he 15?"

Mikey's voice was slurred and barely intelligible, but he just kept talking.

"If he's T-15 what am I? There aren't 15 of us. That's the worst - you guys are the worst namers ever. Shoulda left that to the pros. Like me. I coulda named us way better."

Pause.

"Except we already have names. Radical names."

He was not letting go of that word.

[fearasaurusrex]

"Subject T-16's ongoing vocalizations have made it clear that it is capable of coherent speech. Subject has been speaking primarily in standard American English with a small number of seemingly made up words or unknown slang."

[othersdestructive]

Oh thank goodness, he was okay.

"That subject isn't a subject. He has a name! It's Mikey!" Raph shouted as he thrashed against his bonds. "And my name is Raphael. We're people, just like you."

How could they listen to them talk and not realize that? They were talking about them like they were things and that was not good.

[bestnamer]

"Why am I 16?"

Mikey practically wailed it. It had no poetry. It had no meaning. It didn't accurately sum up the complex wholeness that was Michelangelo.

"I dub thee 26," he howled in sedated defiance.

[fearasaurusrex]

"Both subjects are wearing the collars that we were told about by our contact. These are covered with runes of familiar origin, resembling our records of artifact 1453k, most likely meant to repress mythic abilities. This will provide us a unique opportunity in both exploring myth physiology and the subjects' own underlying unique physiology."

The scientists were getting something ready, laying out a tray of various nasty-looking tools that Raph could only likely see out of the corner of his eyes, but all of it was in plain sight of Mikey.

And it looked very not good.

"We have decided to start our experimentation by vivisecting subject T-15, as it seems more likely to survive the procedure than the smaller subject T-16. If it expires, we'll still be left with T-16 as a viable subject for experimentation."

[othersdestructive]

"'Vivisecting'? You're gonna vivisect me?!" Raph thrashed violently, so hard that he bruised himself even more. "You're crazy! You people are crazy! You can't do this! We're people, we're both people!"

How could they not see it? Yes they were ninjas, and mutants, and turtles, but that teenage part? That was pretty obvious to see.

"When I get loose from this I'm gonna take that saw and shove it right up your - OW!"

An IV catheter had been shoved in his arm and various IV bags were being hooked up above him.