Chapter Text
Mikey
Hiss. Mikey sprayed a fresh strip of color on the blank wall. Shake shake. He pulled out a fresh can from his black and orange bag on the ground. The orange ninja began humming a helpful rhyme.
First comes white, a pure canvas.
Then comes black, to separate from the rest.
Then comes the colors, red, orange, purple and blue.
And finally comes white again, sealing it in with a light hue.
Mikey stepped back and examined its work. It had painted a mural depicting a shield of colorful warriors standing guard against a shadowy figure with claws for hands. Inside the color’s were four small blacked out figures wearing colorful bandanas. The shadow was their ‘father’.
It wasn't fair that the four of them had been treated so badly by their father, even though they tried so hard, and did whatever he wanted. The only one of his children that Shredder clearly cared for was Karai. His only biological child. The rest of them were told that they should “consider themselves lucky that Shredder even bothered to save them.”
Mikey picked up his bag and began to climb up the ladder back to the roof. He knew that they were kinda right. Shredder had saved them from a man who was going to sell them to the highest bidder. They could’ve ended up as lab rats, or worse, stuffed and put on display. Mikey often found himself fantasizing about running away to start a new life.
But where it would go, it had no idea. And it couldn't leave its brothers behind. It was too nauseating to even think about. Especially Donnie, it couldn’t even fathom the thought of leaving them behind. it even felt a pit in its stomach thinking about leaving Leo or Raph behind.
He knew that both his older brothers disliked him, but he couldn't figure out why. Especially Raph. He had made a point of showing how much he hated the orange banded ninja every time he saw them.
Mikey came to a stop at the edge of a roof. Tokyo was a big city but somehow not big enough. Mikey was running out of places to paint, it had jumped over almost every building in town more times than it could count.
He sighed and began to strip off his paint covered hoodie, revealing the pale yellow shirt he wore underneath. He stuffed it in his bag before stowing it away behind a vent. He took off his gas mask and placed it on his little pile.
There was more than just the bag and facemask, there were little nicknacks of all kinds, including an old choker necklace.
Its dark red fabric was worn and smooth and the only thing adorning it was a small round piece of metal with the imprint of a clans marking on it. Xe picked it up and studied the small metal piece that adorned it
It was a circle with a smaller circle inside it with lines cutting through it forming five triangles, inside each triangle was another smaller circle, and on the outer end of the triangles was a bump, as if someone had cut out the smaller circles and placed them on the end of each triangle.
The only thing Miko knew about it, was that it wasn’t the foot clans marking, and that his father hated it. Mikey had doodled the marking on a worksheet he had done a few years back. His teacher told her father, the punishment was one of the most painful ones he had ever experienced. His father had put him in a coma for over a month, and he wasn't able to walk for the rest of the year.
If Mikey didn’t have Donnie, it would probably be dead already. That was the second time it had been put into a coma by its father.
Mikey studied the necklace for a while before placing it back. There were still a few hours till sunrise, but Mikey knew that someone would notice soon. He took one more glance out at the city before turning and running over the tops of buildings again.
It was another fifteen minutes before Mikey saw the tall skyscraper that it had grown up in. The reflective windows made even the dullest streetlights seem too bright, and there were security cameras everywhere, but Mikey knew them all by heart. It had been sneaking out at night since it was seven. And only been caught once.
That bastard foot soldier on night patrol had taken a wrong turn and spotted Mikey right before he leaped from the roof to the sweet freedom of the sleeping city and its endless alleyways.
its father had punished it for that, it hadn't been able to draw or paint for months, and that was one of the more tame punishments.
Mikey climbed onto the roof, staying in the shadows and out of the camera's line of view. It wasn’t long until xe made it to the door. Xe pulled the code cracker xey had built out of his pocket and placed it on the door.
This was one of the newer designs. He had had to upgrade it again after the last one broke on him when his father upgraded the doors while he was gone. He had to break it down, which of course set the building on high alert when it was discovered, but Mikey was already sketching in his room by the time that happened.
Beep! The door swung open and Mikey slipped inside, with a small sigh of relief. He snuck down a few flights of stairs and snuck into Donnie’s lab. It was cold and there wasn't much room thanks to all the boxes and tables covered in tech and trash, but Miko was used to it by now.
“Welcome home, Miko.” Donnie was tapping away on his computer, like always. There was a fresh cup of coffee sitting next to them, along with several empty cups. He was wearing his metal knee high boots and purple overalls. His battle shell was attached to his back, its mechanical arms moving, doing small tasks. “How's the city?”
“Boring as always.” They both spoke in chirps and clicks whenever they talked about sneaking out. It made it much harder for any evesdroppers to snitch on them to Shredder, they call it turtle, but it was probably far from it. “The streets and alleys are almost all covered in murals and other art pieces. Some of them are just too amazing to cover up with new art.”
“That is a predicament isn't it?” Donnie looked at him from the corner of his eye before returning back to work.
“Yeah. . .” Miko made its-self a cup of coffee before sitting down on the ground next to Donnie’s chair and pulled out the motorbike engine it had been working on for days.
They both spent the rest of the night talking tech and working on their projects. This was how they spent most of their nights. After Donnie had been granted a bigger room for his inventions Miko had been crashing in it with him almost every night. Years of this had helped Mikey learn more about tech, and was almost as good at it as his older brother. Mikey often wished that the night could last forever. But morning always comes.
At around six in the morning Mikey stumbled into its room and collapsed onto its bed. its wouldn't be woken up until eight, so it had time for two hours of sleep at most.
Bang, bang, bang! Mikey woke up to the sound of pounding on his door. He rolled over and checked her alarm clock, seven o’clock. With a groan, Mikey pulled himself out of bed and walked over to his door, rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes before opening the door.
A big burly foot soldier stood in the doorway of his room.
“Can I help you?” Mikey crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe.
“Your father wants to see you.”
Mikey felt his heart drop. “Of-of course. May I ask why?” Mikey did his best to keep his confidence up. He would not show fear in front of foot soldiers.
“No idea. Did you do something to upset him?” The foot soldier walked off with a wave, motioning for Mikey to follow.
It was a ten minute walk from Miko’s room to his fathers office, but it was never long enough. The footsteps seemed too loud, and the distant sound of soldiers training seemed to close. Mikey desperately prayed that his father had not found out about her secret night outings.
What seemed like an instant later, Mikey was standing in front of Shredder's office.
“Good luck kid.” The guard walked away, his job done.
Mikey took a minute to steel himself. It most likely nothing, Father just had something to tell us, probably just moving us to a better training routine.
Mikey took a deep breath before pushing open xer father’s door.