Chapter Text
“You know, if a rampaging mutant doesn’t show up anytime soon, I’m gonna punch you, Leo.”
“There’s still time for us to go to the party, alright? Just calm dow–”
– Oh, what is that.” Leo hisses, staring further into the dimly lit shipyards, the strange and eerie glow of the… mutant? – greeting them. In a not so.. Great way..? None of them really wanted to approach it. Reasonably so. It looked. Like. Really weird. Yikes. As he tenses up at the sight of it, his brothers ram in from behind, crashing into and toppling over him in a heap of blistering confusion. Gathering their bearings, they each stand one by one, coupling up behind Leo. Donnie adjusts his glasses while he and his brothers peer at the strange form.
“What is that thing supposed to be?” Raph bristles.
“It’s a mutant brother, show some respect!” Exclaims Mikey, as he swings an arm over Raph’s tense shoulder.
“Yea, that’s not real. It’s not even moving.” Leo tilts his head.
“I think it’s a hologram, maybe..? I can see through it.” Donnie buzzes, looking through the unusual form.
“Maybe.. They’re doing a concert? You know, like Tupac did!” Mikey blurts excitedly.
“Someone should go check it out,”
“Not it!” Raph, Leo, and Donnie exclaim in unison, pressing their fingers to their snouts, each sporting a grin.
“What?!” Mikey yelps, clicking his tongue with clear distaste. “--Aw-!”
He frowns, padding hesitantly towards the hologram with his nunchaku clenched in his fists. He glances over at his brothers, who each give him a nervous smile in turn, Leo raising a thumbs up. Very comforting.
“Fine,” Mikey’s frown deepens as he continues to move forward, reaching his hand out towards the hologram like Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon with Toothless. But, instead of the hologram warming up to him like the aforementioned dragon, it glitches out, being sucked up into the small metal plate it bloomed from.
——————————
“Donnie– wh-what are you doing?--” Leo chokes out, queasy.
“What am I DOING?? I’m FREAKING OUT!!” Donnie shrieks, twisting his arms over each other as they reach for different levers on the opposite sides. As of now, Donnie finds himself in the midst of controlling a crane, the platform with the console rocking back and forth, swinging this way and that in his frenzy, trying to figure out what he was trying to do himself. The slam of a mechazoid being flung into a wall before plopping to the ground, dizzy, had Donnie jumping out of his seat, taking his bo-staff and swinging at the bot like a mad man, sending it flying out of the crane entrance.
Raph calls out something – what, he can’t exactly make out, and Leo doesn’t really relay the message, instead saying “OK, let’s finish this!”, calling out to Donnie as he struggles with a jammed lever in his hold.
“I can get the crane in position, but the lever’s jammed!” Donnie hisses as his voice cracks, tilting his head back to Leo.
“Got it! Manual Release, coming up!”
“Let’s get it.”
Donnie grabs the bulb of a lever, tugging it around its base before it clicks into place, slamming the pedal as the engine rumbles to life.
Watching the blunder below, Donnie shouts to his brothers, two of which were in the midst of quite the heated battle. “The crane is in position!”
The old lady, Bishop, was her name? She yells something. He can’t make it out, but as she calls out to Leo, clearly panicked, something deep in his gut told Donnie that, maybe. This wasn’t the best possible move they could’ve made. Really, no, it was not.
The bright lights and smoke steaming from the blast further develops that idea.
Fireworks, that’s what she had said, wasn’t it.
With panicked shouts, Donnie can find himself flying through the air, sealing his eyes shut as darkness encapsulates his vision, the wind rushing past him like an unforgiving foe.
——————————
“Metalhead..”
“He didn’t make it..” Mikey crouches before the broken down robot, he and his brothers being surrounded by possibly thousands of powered down mechazoids in the wake of their victory with the unexpected appearance of Pigeon Pete, who electrocuted himself in the process.
Mikey lifts up the head as he stands, Leo, Raph, and Donnie coming up next to him. “But, he’s a robot. We can probably just turn him on later,” Mikey shrugs, tossing the head aside. “We totally won!” Mikey exclaims, raising his hand up high above his head as he and his brothers share a high… three.
Donnie allows himself a smile as he tilts his head, the green lens of the strange helmet on his head shining in their dark surroundings. Man, he was beat. Who knew that taking on a horde of mechazoids could wear you out this much? Not him, because he didn’t think he’d ever actually have to deal with being in that sort of situation, but odd things can always happen, he supposes.
As his brothers begin to retreat back into the sewers, Donnie finds himself standing still as he stares almost longingly at the remains of the many robots.
If they weren’t so terrifying, he’d be in awe of Bishop’s impressive work. But, of course he’d find it impressive, he, at the ripe age of 15, only knows so much. Even he can’t believe he had the gall to call Bishop’s coding “bad”.
With a slow exhale, slipping the hunk of metal off his head and tossing it to the side, he approaches the discarded head of Metalhead, picking it up. “You did good, buddy.” He nods, agreeing to himself.
“Donnie, whadd’ya doin’? Come on!” Mikey calls out to him, the others seemingly having gotten some distance before realizing that their tech savvy brother had fallen behind.
“He’s probably obsessing over all the nerd stuff we saw today,” Raph snickers, nudging Leo with his elbow.
“Hey, it was still cool! It’s not every day we get to fight a horde of evil robots!” Donnie scoffs, still holding Metalhead as he waves his other arm out to bring attention to the hundreds of fallen steel soldiers.
“Yea, he’s right, it was pretty crazy!” Leo shrugs, bouncing with leftover adrenaline. “But, we should probably head home now, Splinter’s probably gonna be waiting for us.”
“Yea I think we’ve all had enough excitement for one night..” Mikey grumbles, stretching his arms over his head.
“We never did end up going to that party.” Raph shrugs, frowning a bit.
Leo sighs, before letting out a small chuckle, “There was some guy dressed up as Donnie,” he hums, rubbing the back of his head.
“Oh, really?? Man, I wish I coulda’ seen it!” Mikey pouts, putting his hands on his hips. “Donnie’s got fans!” He snickers.
Donnie watches his brothers from where he stands, a thoughtful expression on his face. He looks back down at Metalhead, running a finger over a dent. He looks over at a nearby powered down mechazoid, crouching down to grab the leg, dragging it along.
The action makes the metal scrape loudly against concrete, the sound startling his brothers.
“Dee – Donnie, what are you doing?” Leo yelps, rubbing his head.
“Oh, I wanted to see if I could try fixing Metalhead with parts from one of these robots!” Donnie tilts his head back at them, watching his brothers exchange a look. Confusion, amusement, before they approach him, helping him lift up the hunk of metal over their heads, slinking over to a nearby manhole.
Mikey crouches down, lifting up the lid for them to toss the robot down, to which Donnie hisses at them to “be careful with it”, being promptly ignored as he and his brothers clamber down the ladder, Donnie’s new subject for material being lugged along with them.
——————————
After the Mutanimals showed up, Splinter saw it fit they expand their home further in the sewer network to make more space for them, a wise decision on his part because otherwise they’d all be cramped up, which meant, for the brothers, no more sharing bedrooms after the Mutanimals, somehow, managed to get apartments. Wingnut even got a job as a cashier, much to their pleasant surprise.
And so, with this new upgrade in their living space, the turtles no longer were all cramped in their shared room, something that they’d wanted for the longest of times,
But now that he’s got it..
Donnie stares up at the ceiling as he lays back on his bed, thinking of everything and nothing at all. He’s so bored, but can’t get himself up for anything. He’s got the rest of the weekend to spend, but can’t think of one single thing he can do to quench his thirst for entertainment.
He liked having space. He liked having his own place, a whole room to himself.
Starting out, it felt exciting. He had more privacy than he had with that tent, but every now and then he misses getting to pop his head out of his tent, his brothers only a few steps away, a bit more than an arms reach away.
They could gather quickly in case of emergencies, it was practical. He didn’t think he’d long to be in the same room as his brothers as he did now, but you never really acknowledge what you have until it’s gone.
But, he supposes, he’ll get over it eventually. He glances at his setup on his desk, made up of discarded monitors and other tech he’d find, fixing them up with a few tutorials he found online. He found the whole thing pretty easy, so it was no wonder he got into the robotics club at his school in the first place.
Robotics..
He sits up in bed with a start, turning his head so fast his vision nearly rocks, glasses slipping down a bit. Pushing them back up his snout, Donnie slides off the side of his bed, shuffling toward the exit and peeking his head out through the curtain. Well, sure they had separate rooms, but they didn’t have doors. And so, instead they simply used curtains. Scumbug somehow attached zippers to them for the boys, so it did kinda give some more semblance of a door.
As Donnie pads out of his room, his palm presses against the cold sewer wall, running his hand over the familiar stone texture. Further in, he could hear the chattering of his family members. He guessed they were talking about anything but the mechazoids. It’d be likely, they wouldn’t want to go worrying Splinter.
Plus, it probably wouldn’t come around to him, newspapers are hardly even printed anymore.
“What is this?” Splinter grunts, audibly confused as he kicks at the terribly hidden mechazoid in the corner.
Donnie almost facepalms, he’d forgotten he’d put it there.
“Ehh, just a robot. Nerd stuff. For Donnie.” Raph shrugs, picking at his tooth.
Donnie peeks his head out from the corner, gaze catching first on the mechazoid, then Splinter’s confused expression.
“Donatello?” Splinter tilts his head, pointing at the mechazoid.
Donnie rubs the back of his head, chuckling. “We.. found it by a dumpster, I wanted to try using the pieces to build something!” He shrugs, watching Splinter squint at him. It wasn’t completely a lie, there was in fact a dumpster nearby at the time.
“Build what? A new toaster?” He inquires, seeming genuinely interested, but Leo can’t help but crack a snicker at the statement.
Donnie rolls his eyes at Leo, shaking his head. “Just, like. Use the pieces for whatever, I guess?” He mumbles, coming up by the mechazoid and crouching to start lifting it.
“Alright..? Well, you go on with that,” Splinter hums, hobbling towards his seat near the couch and settling down, picking up a mug of tea that he likely set down when he stepped into the room.
Donnie shrugs, hauling the mechazoid up and dragging it along with him as he treads down the hall.
He hears Raph audibly wince at the sharp sound of metal to stone as the ragged, rusted body of the mechazoid drags behind Donnie.
Haphazardly stumbling into his room and zipping the curtain up again, Donnie settles the robot down, tilting his head to the side with a look of confidence. Namely in his abilities. Maybe he has a handle on this, maybe he doesn’t.
..Yea, he could do this. How hard could it be, anyways? It’s just fixing Metalhead. Maybe he could..
He turns to the discarded head he settled on his desk, lifting it up. Moving over to the mechazoid, he pulls its original head off, putting Metalhead’s own in its place, aand…
Nothing. Okay, that checks out.
Simply replacing the head wouldn’t seem to work out (though he wasn’t sure why he ever thought that’d be the solution), he’d need some sort of power source to be able to actually turn the mechazoid on, and he wouldn’t exactly be too glad if the bot retained its original coding, because that’d mean that he’d have yet another raging mechazoid to deal with, and, as earlier established, he was absolutely drained from his earlier.. situations.
Donnie rubs the back of his head, thinking. So, what power source could he use? Well..
He turns the mechazoid around, stepping away for a moment towards his desk to open a cluttered drawer filled with random tools he’s found discarded. He was good with keeping his things clean, but when it came to his drawers it was organized chaos. He digs around before taking out a 2.5 millimeter screwdriver, turning back towards the mechazoid. He prods at the screw, checking if the driver had the right nib, and, luckily, it fit like a glove.
With a content sigh, he picks out the screws on the backing one by one, lifting it up and off before setting it down to the side. He beams at the two large batteries he was faced with, plucking each out. He could try replacing the batteries, but where could he get some that big?
Where did Bishop even get these?
“Donnie, dad wants you to come with me to get groceries!’ Mikey exclaims from right outside the curtain to Donnie’s room, slapping his palm against the tarp-like material. The sharp sound it makes startles Donnie, and he almost drops the second battery.
When did Mikey get here? He didn’t hear him coming down the hall..
“Why can’t you go by yourself?? I’m busy, Mike.” Donnie bristles, adjusting the mechazoid’s position against his bed.
“But that’s boring, come on Dee! Please??” Donnie could hear the whine in Mikey’s tone, and it almost made him chuckle. Though, maybe getting out could be a good idea. He could probably figure out a way to recharge the batteries, or find replacements altogether. Though, he wouldn’t know how to get some that large..
‘Dee!” Mikey slaps his hand against the curtain again.
“Fine – fine. Just, stop that!” He hisses, approaching the curtain and pulling down the zip, to be met with a toothy, braced grin.
“Oh, yes! Thank you, Dee! I don’t think I would survive on my own, I’d die of boredom!” Mikey waves his arms, one having that stupid little tote bag with the cat on it slung over the shoulder. What was his name..?? Something, something, whiskey. Whisker? Whiskers? Whatever.
“You thought I’d be the most entertaining person to go with. Yea, okay.” Donnie grumbles, rolling his eyes. He tosses his screwdriver aside, he can get back to it later.
“I mean, better than nothing, am I right?” Mikey grins.
“Yikes. Was I the last choice?” Donnie tilts his head, zipping up the curtain again.
“Eeeeyeaah.. Leo refused and Raph was watching TV, so…” Mikey trails off.
“Raph was watching TV, and you, what, didn’t want to bother him?” Donnie deadpans.
Mikey simply shrugs, hurrying on ahead of Donnie as he let out an exasperated sigh.
Whatever. This’ll be over in a jiffy, probably. And, again, getting out could be beneficial, he could try looking for some more batteries or something to charge them. Maybe. Err. Yea. Baby steps, go with Mikey for groceries, look for batteries, preferably at a hardware store–? –or just figure out a way to recharge the ones he already has, and.. Well, just.. Turning on the robot again.
——————————
“Thank you, Ms. Khatri,” Donnie sighs, nodding his head as he rips Mikey away from his position crouching over the very agitated Mr. Whiskers, of which was hissing at Mikey as he had slowly reached towards the furry thing despite Donnie’s many exasperated warnings about how that cat was well prepared to slash his face to bits.
That wasn’t exactly what he said, but. Get the memo.
Mikey twists out of his grip, snatching up the other grocery bag that Donnie held, leaving the tote bag to him. “G’bye! See you!” He grins, waving back as he saunters behind Donnie, who swings the door open. The bell chimes as he holds it for Mikey, urging the other turtle along in his exasperation. He smiles back at Ms. Khatri as she waves them off.
If he was tired before, he was even more so. The sleep he got the night before after the whole situation with the mechazoids did little to quench his thirst for rest. And having to go all this way with Mikey had simply made him feel even more numb. At this rate he didn’t care about Metalhead, he just wanted to go back to the lair and slide into his bed and never leave.
..Metalhead..
The batteries–!
..Right. He still didn’t really know what to do about those.. He slows to a stroll as he thinks, snapping out of it as Mikey whirls around and bumps his shoulder.
He startles, biting the inside of his cheek. “What–?”
“I asked if you wanted to try that ice cream pizza with me??” Mikey bristles, frowning.
“Euuu, yea, no thanks Mikey..” Donnie shakes his head, snout scrunching slightly as he plays at the end of one of his hoodie strings, “I’m sure dad or Scumbug wouldn’t mind, though.” He shrugs, fixing his hold on the tote.
“Gosh, you guys just never wanna try nothin’ new!” Mikey scoffs half heartedly, rolling his eyes. “Sometimes I wonder if I was born with the right family, like, man! You guys can be so plaaain borrinngg-uh!” He exaggerates, limply swinging his arms as he walks.
“Stop your moping, come on. I need to get something real quick.” Donnie lightly smacks the back of Mikey’s head, who in turn shoves his palm against Donnie’s snout. Donnie, who then bites Mikey’s hand. Not enough to break skin, but definitely enough to hurt.
“Aoh– YEEOWCH– DONNIE–!!” Mikey hisses, waving his hand a bit with a pout. “The biting, what did we say about the biting?!”
Donnie stares at him with a deadpan expression, before rolling his eyes and rubbing in between his eyes. “Get over it, Mike.” He waves his brother along, who begrudgingly follows behind.
——————————
Raph sat on the couch, munching away on a Rice Krispies treat lazily as Leo worked at putting away all the groceries Mikey and Donnie brought back. Mikey was loudly chewing a wad of bubblegum while flicking at the joysticks on a controller that wasn’t plugged in at the moment.
Raph grunts, nudging Mikey with his foot. “Dude. Literally why are you so loud.” He frowns, picking up the TV remote and turning the volume up. “And shouldn’t you like. Not be chewing gum, isn’t that stuff bad for your braces or something.”
“It’s fine, it’s sugar free!” Mikey buzzes, making a face before his tongue pops out of his mouth, and he works at making a weak little bubble.
“What does it being sugar free have to do with it.. Not being bad for your braces…??” Raph tilts his head towards Mikey, cramming the rest of his rice krispies into his mouth.
“It, like, shouldn’t mess up my braces! At least that’s what Donnie told me, when we bought it.” Mikey shrugs, slumping down onto their dad’s reclining seat.
Raph sighs, rubbing his head. “Whatever.” He turns back to the TV. “.. Speaking of Dee, how do you think it’s going with that uhh. Stupid lil’.. Robot something. Metalhead?”
“I honestly don’t got a clue, but after we saw Ms. Khatri, he was up and was all like, hey I need to get something, let's go, we went to a hardware store and Donnie asked where we could get these batteries? And some lady was like, it's in uh.. Aisle something something?” Mikey hums, leaning back. “Anyways we found them and they were like, a third the size of my head, I dunno, and I honestly don’t know how Donnie paid for them.”
“He probably got ‘em because he’s basically, like, the IT guy, I’ve been seeing random people coming up to him asking if he could fix their stuff during school, he probably gets money from that?” Leo jumps in, leaning over Splinter’s recliner and crossing his arms. His sudden appearance startles Mikey.
Mikey swats at Leo, scooting back in his seat. “Oh, man, why didn’t he tell us about that! That’s honestly pretty neat, Dee’s making bank!” Mikey grins, flopping onto his side and smushing his face against the armrest.
“He probably didn’t say anything because he thought we’d mess it up,” Leo swats at Mikey back, frowning a bit.
“But, like, why would we ever do that! And what would there be to mess up??” Mikey chirps.
“I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff that you could mess up for Donnie.” Raph mumbles.
“Wh- why me specifically?!” Mikey sputters.
“You're the type,” Leo shrugs, patting Mikey’s head. “Lets not worry about it too much, Donnie's doing his own thing. He'd probably tell us to leave him alone if we ever ask about it, so like. It's whatever.”
Raph makes a face at Leo after a moment, before sighing and rolling onto his side, staring at the TV and running the show he was watching back a few minutes.
“What do you mean I’m the type?? Man, y’all are mad rude sometimes.” Mikey rolls his eyes, bristling with a pout.
Leo chuckles, shaking his head. “Did you remember to get any of that orange soda?” He tilts his head.
“Oh, yea! I did, and we also got some “Necto”, I think it’s called. Ms. Khatri recommended it, but I haven’t tried it yet. Wanna try it with me?” Mikey starts sitting up.
Leo looks up in thought, before nodding. “Yea, sure. Let’s try it?” He smiles, coming around the seat to help Mikey up, even if he didn’t really need the help.
They make quick work of getting the soda, Mikey fawning over the brightly colored packaging as Leo grabbed glasses for the both of them. Mikey popped open the bottle and poured both of them a good portion of the soda. They bump glasses awkwardly, sipping the soda simultaneously.
“Oh wow, that’s good.” Leo murmurs.
“Yea, no that, that tastes like. Medicinal. But in a good way?” Mikey cocks his head.
“Yea, kinda like nyquil and raspberries.” Leo shrugs. “It tastes good, though, yea.”
“Raph, Raph!” Mikey blurts, trying to get his brother’s attention from the kitchen.
Raph sighs, running a hand over his face. He pauses the TV. “What, what. Literally what??”
“Come here, try this!” Mikey calls.
Raph’s expression tightens in annoyance. Whatever, getting up could do him good. He shifts his leg a bit, a biting numbness crawling up his limb. He sits up, shaking out his leg and accidentally hitting the coffee table. He hisses, then shakes his head as he gets up, dragging himself to the kitchen at a leisurely pace, taking his sweet time.
Mikey takes a long sip from his cup, practically slurping as he and Leo wait for Raph. Leo swats his arm, hissing a “stop that”. Mikey swallows, before grinning at his brother.
“What is it,” Raph grunts, coming up to the other two.
“Oh, dude, you gotta try this.” Mikey exclaims, waving his empty glass in Raph’s face. Only then did he realize, he finished the drink, and awkwardly chuckles as he passes the cup back to Leo, who refills it and slides it over to Raph.
He eyes the cup suspiciously. “What is that?”
“It’s soda, Raph.” Leo shakes his head.
“Yea, okay, but like. Where did you even get this?” He sniffs the cup.
“Gosh, it’s not poison, Raph. Mikey and Donnie got it when they got groceries, it tastes good, I swear.” Leo rolls his eyes, a tiny bit exasperated.
Raph frowns at him, before begrudgingly taking a micro-sip, then a bigger sip. He tilts his head at the glass. “It tastes like medicine.”
“That’s what I said!” Mikey grins.
Raph shrugs, chugging the rest of the soda. “That tastes pretty good.” He mumbles, wiping his mouth with his fist.
The three continue to spend their time chattering on some nonsense, hopping from subject to subject, as conversations go. Perhaps, going from music artists to favorite animals, or politics to questioning their position in the universe, but it’s all just the way things are when you have nothing else to do on a Saturday night.
“What else did you guys get?” Leo hums, tilting his glass.
“Ice cream pizza, but I never got to actually try it,” Mikey sighs.
“Hold on, is that, like. Ice cream on pizza or ice cream that is pizza?” Raph butts in, looking displeased at the thought. To him, ice cream on pizza didn’t seem like that much of an appetizing combination.
“I don’t know, actually!” Mikey shrugs. “Gotta try it to find out, it’s like, a surprise!”
“So, you’re giving yourself, what, food poisoning, just for, like. The love of the game??” Raph says, appalled.
“Well, why not! Not that I want food poisoning,” Mikey rolls his eyes, reaching for the bottle again. It was nearly finished. “.. Should we leave this for Dee?”
Leo lightly taps his finger on his cup. “I don’t see why not, I think he’d be glad we left some for him. Should one of us bring it over for him?”
“Uh, yea sure.” Raph shrugs, extending his hand for it. Mikey places the bottle in his hands. Getting to walk around would do him some good, he’s been laying around the majority of the day, mainly because of the still lingering ache of getting his ribs practically smashed in, but all's well that ends well.
“Ask him if he’s still up to try that pizza with me?” Mikey buzzes, grinning.
Raph peeks back at him, nodding slowly as he makes a face. Poor Donnie, what torture that’s gonna be. Whatever, not his problem. He lifts himself off the seat, padding through the winding tunnels.
He’d nearly forgotten how far along Donnie kept his room. Did he like solitude that much? Well. Any interaction would do him some good. Probably. It's been, what, a few hours since he and Mikey had gotten back to the lair?
The sounds of his footfalls echoed in the stretching tunnel as he dragged his palm against one of the walls. Raph slumps over a bit before straightening himself up as he stares at the open curtain of Donnie’s room.
He watches it for a moment, considering that Donnie likely left his room. He wouldn’t leave the curtain open if he was in there. He shrugs, moving towards the curtain and pushing it further, stepping towards Donnie’s desk. There was hardly any light in the room, only the light from the tunnel right outside shining into the room and allowing Raph sight. He places the bottle on Donnie’s desk, rolling his shoulders lazily.
Raph starts to leave when he steps on something wet.
Grimacing, he carefully lifts his foot.
He looks at the bottom of his foot, unable to see the dark smear too clearly.
He pushes the curtain open further,
to see a small, now smeared, splatter of crimson on the ground.
——————————
Donnie rolls his wrist, leaning over the mechazoid with an unwavering sort of focus.
He chews on the inside of his cheek, screwing the backing of the battery port back on. He looked over the bot, looking at any sign of the mechazoid powering on, or if there was a button to press, but he found nothing. He felt a small wave of fatigue hit him as his body ached.
He stands, rubbing his sore knees after having sat on them for the longest time. He paces around the room a while, looking up at the light above him. He sighs, holding his stomach as he turns off the light. He steps over to the curtain, unzipping it and carefully padding out.
Man, did he need to stretch his legs..
As mindlessly as he could be, he strolled through the dark tunnels. The only sounds now, were the sounds of commotion in the big city above. It felt strange knowing how many people didn’t know that a bunch of mutant turtles were living just underground in the city’s sewer system.
And now that they did know them, well. They felt welcome. The Mutanimals even got their own apartments, and Wingnut works at a corner shop.
But there were bound to be people who didn’t like them, it wasn’t farfetched to say that Donnie believed that there were a handful of people who still see them as freaks of nature, which wasn't wrong.
His thoughts jump from one to another as he travels through the tunnel, farther and farther from the central region of the lair. The sound of something clattering against stone snaps him to attention, and he looks around to see a phone on the ground, likely having fallen through a sewer grate. He tenderly picks it up, looking up before hopping up and attempting to grab the grate above him.
His fingers graze the metal, and he lands back on the floor. He sighs, before hopping up again and sliding the phone up above the grate, careful to not let it fall again. He lets go, landing on the ground again and starting to back away. Why he put in the effort for that, he didn’t really know.
He supposes he just felt like it.
He stares at the ground, before turning around the way he came. He’s been going around long enough, so he should probably get back to his room. Grab his phone, maybe head to the kitchen and grab a snack?
He thinks against it, actually when he remembers Mikey’s offer on that icecream pizza.
Ew.
Donnie continues along, kicking a soda can he spotted on the way. He kicks it one last, hard time, watching the can ricochet off the walls and land somewhere further ahead.
When he finally gets back, he yawns, pushing his curtain open. The lights were still off, just as he left them, but..
Something was off.
He moves to turn the light on, staring at where Metalhead should have been.
A rustle and a sharp, crackling pain in the back of his head made him suck in a harsh breath. His legs buckle as his head rocks.
He tries to stay up, turning around to see what had hit him. His vision felt blurry.
Another hit, and he’s down on the ground, right lens crackling against the pressure of his face. A sharp, wheezing cough wracks his body when he chokes up a bit of blood.
The last thing he had seen before he blacked out,
was the strange glow of a single, red eye.