Chapter Text
Mikey shot out of his bed with a start. He could barely contain himself as he rushed down to the main room of the lair.
His eyes trailed along the orange and white streamers that decorated everything. They all connected to one big ‘Happy Birthday’ sign. That’s right, it was the orange turtle’s 13th birthday.
He spun around to look at Raph who had just walked in with a box full of decorations, April trailing close behind him.
“Raph!! April!” Mikey jumped over to hug both of them, just overflowing with nothing but pure joy.
“Heyy, birthday boy!” April hugged the young turtle back, “How’s it feel to officially be a teen now?”
“It feels great!” The box shell bounced up and down as he clapped his hands together.
“Calm down Mikey, you’re gonna wake Splints up,” April patted the turtle on his shell and dragged him over to some of the decorations they had laid out.
“Whatcha think of the color palette this year?” The young girl picked up some more streamers.
“I love it! I can’t wait for today!” Mikey started to slightly flap his hands up and down out of excitement but an odd orange spark, one he had never seen before came from his hands.
Both April and Raph stopped what they were doing to look over at Mikey. They had seen it too, but they didn’t know what just happened.
“Uhh, Mikey? What was that?” Raph questioned.
The box shell stared down at his hands in pure confusion. What was that?
The box shell looked up at his older brother, “I don’t know? But whatever it is, it can wait till later! Maybe Donnie knows!” All confusion melted away as the beams of happiness came flooding back. Mikey’s smile spread to both April and Raph as they just laughed off the spark and got back to work.
What he didn’t tell them, however, was that this spark thing had happened two nights ago as well.
When he was sitting alone in his room he was getting really stressed over a Jupiter Jim comic that had a lot of anticipation and intensity to it. He did the same exact hand motions he had done just then and the sparks singed the corners of the comic. He had hidden it away as to not worry his brother’s until he figured it out, but now he has an opening to talk to Donnie about it later.
“Mikeyy!” Leo came dashing in and scooped the box shell into a tight hug, “Happy birthday little brother!”
“Ah yes, happy birthday Michael,” Donnie stood behind Leo with a present in hand.
“D! Leo! Get over here and help us with these decorations!” April called out to them.
Leo groaned, “Hang oooon! I’m spending quality time with my baby bro!”
“You have all day to hang out with him, right now we gotta get all of this up!” The young girl chucked some streamers at Leo, who caught it with his face.
“OW!” He yelled out causing Donnie to laugh at his brother’s misfortune.
“Oh shoot! Sorry Leo, didn’t mean to land it there!” April laughed out.
“Be more careful next time!” Leo complained.
Mikey smiled to himself as he listened to the playful bickering between his brother and April.
The box shell trotted into the kitchen to see what kind of cake he got. Donnie volunteered to get it this year and, surprisingly, Donnie is very good at picking these things out.
Mikey stood in front of the kitchen counter, the white box that contained the cake sitting right in front of him. Surely a little peek wouldn’t hurt.
Lifting up the top of the box, Mikey’s smile grew two times as he looked down at the cake decorated in orange and white frosting flowers. Orange shaped gummies scattered the top of the cake. Alongside those were uniform slices of oranges neatly lined up in a circle.
The orange turtle closed the white box after being satisfied with the view. Donnie really did everything he could for the cake, Mikey could only wonder what it cost.
Overwhelming happiness. That’s what he felt. But he needed to calm down, he reminded himself, the sparks could come back if he didn’t. Until he figures it out he needs to keep himself cool, calm, collected.
Mikey inhaled a sharp breath and held it for a second. Cool, calm, collected. He breathed out. Much better.
A loud clattering sound came from the main room of the lair, causing the box shell turtle to slightly jump and whip around. He ran right out of the kitchen to see what all of the commotion was and could barely suppress his laughter at the scene in front of him.
Leo had thought it’d be a good idea to stand on a ladder with no support and had fallen down to the ground, taking a line of streamers down with him.
Donnie stood over the red-eared slider, yelling at the poor guy.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m sorry. I can fix this,” Leo stood back up but Donnie took the streamers away from the blue turtle, “Wh— Hey!”
“I can do it,” the softshell told him as he used his jet pack to pin the remaining streamers to the ceiling.
Leo rolled his eyes and looked towards Mikey, “I made one mistake and now he’s going crazy.”
“He probably just wants to get things done quicker,” Mikey shrugged.
“Thank you, Micheal. You are right, I am trying to get things done quicker,” Donnie mused as he softly landed on the ground, his arms crossed.
“What you’re doing is gunking up the mood with your attitude,” Leo shot back.
“Scoff! You take that back!” Donnie threateningly pointed a finger at the red-eared slider.
“Both of you!” Raph called out, getting annoyed with the twins, “Shut it and come help! We’ll get nowhere with you two bickerin’!”
“Fiiiiine,” the twins groaned in unison as they picked up some more decorations to throw up onto the walls.
Mikey trotted over to the living room, peeking in to see his dad asleep on the recliner. A Lou Jitsu movie played on the projector.
Stepping forward, Mikey watched as Lou Jitsu fought off the bad guys with such ease. The box shell kept his focus solely on the movie, watching as Lou Jitsu proved himself to be the coolest person Mikey had ever seen. He sat there for a good forty minutes, thinking about how much he wanted to be like the movie star.
Oh, what Mikey wouldn’t do to be the coolest fighter in history, just like Lou Jitsu. The thought alone made him bubble up with joy, too much. Need to keep it down.
He took a quick deep breath before training his eyes back onto the screen. Cool, calm, collected.
The only thing that got him to look away was the credits of the movie.
Mikey let out a disappointed huff and looked over to his dad who was still fast asleep.
He didn’t want to wake Splinter up but he also didn’t want him to sleep through the entire party. Maybe he’ll wake up soon.
“Mikey,” The box shell craned his head over to see Donnie standing in the doorway, “Everything is ready if you’d like to come and start the party.”
“Oh! Great!” Mikey leaped up and rushed to the doorway but slowed down as something came to mind, “Hey, Donnie?”
“Hmm?” The softshell raised an ‘eyebrow’.
“There’s something I wanted to ask you about,” The box shell fiddled his hands together.
“Is something wrong?” Donnie, a little worried, questioned.
“No! No, nothing’s wrong, it's just…It’s just weird? I think?” Mikey glanced to the side as he spoke.
“Well, what is it?”
“Is it normal to, well, have sparks come out of your hands? Am I a robot?? You’d tell me if I was a robot, right?” The box shell hushedly yelled, beginning to become nervous at the thought of being a robot.
“You’re definitely not a robot, I think I’d know if you were,” Donnie rubbed his temple with one hand, “Could you demonstrate the sparks?”
Nodding, Mikey began to flap his hands up and down like he had done twice previously. Orange sparks flew out from his arms as Donnie watched in awe.
“Hoooooly sh— You weren’t kidding!” Donnie grabbed onto one of Mikey’s wrists to further examine his hands, “I have no clue what that was but I promise you, dear brother, I will find out!”
The box shell laughed, “Thanks D, but let’s do that after the party! I just wanted to get it off my chest!”
“Oh, right, yes let's get the party started!”
————————————————
Cake, presents, his brothers, everything Mikey could ask for at his party.
Right now, he was sitting down on a couch with everyone else crowded around him. It was gift time and then they could eat the cake afterwards.
Leo handed the box shell a blue gift box that was wrapped up in a blue cotton bow, talking about how he had picked out the ‘perfect present’.
Mikey took the bow off, planning on saving it for later and looked inside of the box. It contained a little figure of a cat that looked like it was made out of ice cream.
“Awwww!” Mikey cooed as he picked up the little figure.
“Yeah, best gift, sureee,” Donnie remarked to Leo.
“Hey, he likes it! Just like I knew he would!” Leo laughed off his brother’s words.
“Mhmm, anyway, Micheal, open my gift next,” The softshell handed Mikey a purple box which was a bit smaller than Leo’s.
Tearing off the wrapping paper and peeking into the box, Mikey tilted his head at the device within the box. Picking it up, he looked to Donnie to explain it.
“That, my friend, is a stabilizing glove! It will allow you to create the most perfect circles and lines when drawing!” Donnie boasted about his invention.
“Really??” Mikey beamed and tried the glove on, it fit perfectly. It was a black glove with thin, spaced out purple stripes which went all the way up his upper arm, stopping an inch before his elbow.
Immediately he could feel his hand going practically stiff. He could still move it just fine but the movement’s were much smoother.
“It’s perfect!” Mikey claimed, “Thanks D!”
Donnie gave the biggest shit eating grin to Leo. He won.
“I don’t wanna hear it,” Leo told the softshell, refusing to look at him.
“My turn!” Raph shoved a poorly wrapped red box towards Mikey.
The box shell didn’t hesitate to tear off the wrapping paper and pull out what was inside. In his hand was a mini clay figure of the box shell.
Mikey giggled, “Looks just like me!”
Raph nodded, “I made it! I accidentally got too much clay though, so you can have all of that, too.”
“Ooooo I could use that!”
“Last one!” April handed the box shell a thin, yellow and green box.
Mikey took out the contents and saw an orange, loose shirt with red, purple, and blue hints here and there.
“Had to use Leo as a test subject for that,” April started, “Wanted to make sure it doesn’t go over your shell too much, it clips in the back!”
“You made this?” Mikey examined the shirt.
It had loose sleeves, mostly no back except for two flaps that had clips on them so that he could put it over his shell and still have it look normal, the front was asymmetrical with a pin to keep it to the side. It sort of looked like a robe in that sense. But it was perfect for Mikey.
“Yeah! Took a while to make it but it ended up working out in the end. And actually, all of us worked on it if it wasn’t obvious from your brother’s added on colors,” she laughed to herself.
Mikey looked up at his brothers and April, then to the shirt. He smiled, they had all chipped in on this one.
“Do you like it?” Raph hesitantly asked the box shell.
Mikey looked back up at them, a large grin on his face and stars in his eyes, “I love it!”
Donnie sighed a breath of relief, “Oh good, I thought you weren’t going to like it.”
Leo slapped Donnie on his battle shell, “Of course he was gonna like it, Don.”
The softshell glared at his twin, “Hand. Off.”
Leo shrugged and took his hand off of Donnie, smiling as if he did nothing.
“Time for cake!” April shouted as she rushed to the kitchen.
The turtles all shot up and ran after her, Mikey having left all of his presents on the couch.
In the kitchen, April was already lighting two candles. One had the number 1 and the other had a 3. Thirteen. Mikey was officially thirteen.
The box shell sat down at the kitchen counter, getting ready to blow out his candles but obviously waited for the birthday song.
Much to Donnie’s dismay, Leo went over the top with the song. Raph was laughing through the whole thing and April was drumming up a little tune on the counter.
Once the song finally finished, Mikey blew out his candles and everyone cheered. Leo and Raph pulled Mikey into a tight hug and forced the other two to join in as well.
“You’re growing up wayyy too fast Mikey,” Raph complained.
“Hey, none of that today, Raph,” April scolded him.
Mikey looked around the room. Everything he could ask for was here but all he could think about were the sparks. He was forcing himself to stay cool, to stay calm, to stay collected. But how was he to do so when he wanted to scream out in happiness?
While the other four didn’t notice the small shift in Mikey’s demeanor, Donnie did.
The softshell thought for a moment before speaking, “Mikey, if you wouldn’t mind could you come with me to grab something from the lab real quick?”
“Aw what? You’re trying to get Mikey to help you now? Booooooo,” Leo crossed his arms.
“Nah, it’s fine, I like helping Donnie!” Mikey stood up and skipped along towards the lab, Donnie trailing along beside him.
Once they got out of earshot, Donnie put a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder. The box shell glanced up at his brother, browbones beginning to furrow.
“Angelo, are the sparks bothering you?” The softshell quietly asked.
Mikey looked down, “Was it that obvious?”
“Mhm. I can try and figure something out before we go back into the kitchen. Of course, only if you’d want me to.”
“Please, it happens every time I get too excited or wave my hands around.”
The two turtles arrived in the lab and Donnie went to go get a clipboard and some blank paper. He returned to the box shell and clicked a pen so he could write.
“Sit,” Donnie commanded in a surprisingly nice tone.
Mikey sat down in Donnie’s swivel chair and spun around a little. The softshell grabbed onto the chair though, forcing the young turtle to stop.
“First,” Donnie started scribbling something down on the paper, “I need you to bring the sparks back.”
Mikey nodded and pulled the glove off, starting to flap his hands once more to create the orange sparks.
Donnie took a few notes on who knows what, “Keep going, see what happens.”
So, Mikey listened and kept going. However, an orange crack in the air caused him to lose focus and stop moving, the crack going away instantly.
“Do that again!” Donnie shouted, not meaning to have raised his voice.
The box shell tried to bring the crack back but this time, he simply extended his hands out and tried to concentrate on the sparks. Slowly, they came back, and so did the crack.
Mikey reached out to the crack, finding that he could tear it open. Pulling it, a large portal expanded from the crack, creating a force that knocked both Mikey and Donnie over.
“Don! What’s taking so—“ Raph, Leo, and April walked in, standing there with their mouths agape and eyes wide.
Donnie stood up, he wasn’t expecting a whole portal to show up.
Mikey watched as the portal swirled around and created a crackling sound. Looking around the portal, thin, orange cracks lined the edges of the portal.
April, Leo, and Raph all ran over to Donnie, asking him what was going on and not understanding why there was a huge portal in his lab.
Mikey stood as well, reaching out to touch it. His hand went through the portal, not coming out through the side that his brothers were on. Where his hand did go, he didn’t know, but the other side felt warm which was a stark contrast from the frigid temperature of the lab he was currently in.
“Mikey don’t touch that!” Donnie yelled out, causing the younger turtle to yank his arm back.
The sudden jolt caused Mikey to lose control over the portal, a large seemingly magnetic pull emitting from it.
The pull didn’t affect the orange turtle as he stepped away, but it began to pull in April and his brothers. They tried to stand their ground but the pull of the portal knocked them off their feet.
“GUYS!!” Mikey screamed out as he watched all of his brothers and April get sucked into the portal, reaching out for them.
“MIKEY!” They all screamed in unison as they disappeared through the portal.
The portal shut right before he could reach it.
They were all gone.
Mikey fell to his knees as he looked at where the portal once was, then to where his brothers once were. Hot tears began to flow down his face, this was all his fault. He had no idea where his brothers or April could be.
He looked down to his hands, noticing the glowing orange cracks on them along with a tremble that he couldn’t keep down.
How could everything go so wrong so fast?
Mikey held his hands together, the tremors in his hands wouldn’t stop. His eyes stayed fixated on the air in which the portal that took his brothers had been.
It's all his fault.
He shook that out of his head quicker than it showed up. No, no he couldn’t have known that this would happen.
Mikey stood, if he wanted to figure this out he needed to get himself together.
Picking up that glove that Donnie had given to him, he slipped it on. It stopped the tremors in his hand, if only Donnie had made two.
There was no physical pain, only the emotional anguish of the issue at hand. This was not how he wanted to spend his birthday.
He wiped the tears away from his face, he didn’t know where that portal went but he couldn’t be underprepared if he wanted to go after everyone. So, he got ready to go in.
Rushing over to the couch with the rest of the gifts he had received, he picked them all up. While Donnie’s gift was the most practical, he still wanted to keep something with him.
He threw the shirt on and clipped it up in the back, putting that blue cotton bow over the clips. It was surprisingly really warm which would be good if it ended up being cold wherever he went.
Mikey ran to the armory, taking his nunchucks down from their perch.
He paused for a moment, glancing over to the harness that was made especially for holding his and his brother's weapons all at once. He took it off of the wall and placed it over the shirt, slipping the nunchucks through the little opening on the side.
He took down Raph’s sai’s stuffing them away into the spot meant for them on the harness. He did the same for Donnie’s bō and Leo’s swords.
Mikey turned towards a full body mirror that leaned against a wall. He looked like he was about to go out to war with all of his brother's weapons on him.
The young turtle took a deep breath, returning to the lab. No sign of life. None at all.
Mikey moved to the center of the room, glancing around at his surroundings before turning to look at where the portal had once been. Somehow, there was a large scorch mark on the ground that he hadn’t noticed. He could only hope that that wasn’t what happened to his brothers.
Even though he was trying everything he could to stay cool, calm, and collected he still felt hot tears rush down his face again. He sniffled as he reached his non trembling hand up to wipe away his tears. He can do this.
Extending his arms, he held his breath. Portal. He needs a portal.
Rings of orange sparks surrounded him, moving forward and causing the air around him to crack with orange sparks. A chill went down his spine as the cracks formed a second portal.
It was now or never.
Mikey stepped forward, he was gonna find his brothers. One way or another.