Author's Note: Whoo, two fics updated in one day, and this one definitely needed updating! This and the next two are all the same story and could be considered a ficlet. Anyway, we'll have certain alien dinosaurs coming back for revenge, but we'll also have our happy couple Donnie and Chey get into a huge fight after having bad days. Plus we'll finally start getting the details on Andromeda's origins and how she came to be what she is now. Be sure to read, review, and you can even drop in some requests for scenarios!
Ficlet 25: Triceratons Attack, Part 1 (aka When Bad Days Go Too Far)
"I will ask one more time…who is responsible for the death of Commander Mozar!?"
Three Triceraton troops stood silently in front of another wearing a cape and crown. They also happened to be standing in front of a funeral pyre where a dead Triceraton lay. The public would arrive shortly to say goodbye to one of their heroes, but the Prime Leader wanted answers before honoring his commander's memory. If it were the Kraang, he would wipe them out the same way they wiped their home planet out. But the grunts' silence told him there was more to this.
"Prime Leader Zanramon…you wouldn't believe us. Even we have trouble believing it." One grunt justified. "W-We were so shocked that we couldn't repair the bomb, a-and the Fugitoid escaped!"
"Whether or not it's believable, you WILL tell me!" Zanramon slammed his fist against the wall of the funeral chamber to emphasize his anger. "Now who killed him!?"
One of the grunts gulped, but finally admitted, "It wasn't a Kraang. It was…a human female. A-A green creature stepped in front of Mozar's blade, and…and she shot him in the head."
Taking a moment to process this information, Zanramon suddenly looked at Mozar's body with a disturbed expression on his face. The Kraang were enough of a threat to their species and others; they were the reason they no longer had a home planet. He thought the inhabitants of that back-water planet were just feeble mammals scared of anything bigger than them. Now he heard that one of those feeble mammals killed his highest-ranking officer with a single shot. If given enough of a plea, he might've spared the humans in his quest to eradicate the Kraang. But now…
"General Zera will want to know this. Inform her immediately…then set a course for Earth."
Present Day
Donatello wasn't having a great day, to say the least. Leo and Rap put him in the middle of another argument, Mikey broke his Bo staff attempting to do a pole-vault, and Splinter made him do extra flips for not sleeping. Not to mention Fugitoid blowing up his computer with more messages than he could handle; he ignored them out of spite. Those things, under normal circumstances, he could tolerate and move on from. But the one thing that made these misfortunes worsen was one thing weighing on his mind for the past two years: curing Timothy.
Invasions and near-death experiences put him behind on curing the former Pulverizer. Since he had the resources to make retromutagen, it should've been that easy. Unfortunately, given the circumstances of his mutation and his current frozen state, a drop of regular retromutagen wasn't enough. Not unless he wanted to risk turning him into water. So he worked day and night to rectify what he saw as his greatest failure, at the cost of his health and his mood. And that started with testing another modified retromutagen sample on a piece of the frozen Timothy.
"As much as I want this to be as accurate as possible, I wish I could just snap my fingers and have you back to normal…" Donnie murmured to the frozen mutant across the room. "I'm sorry I haven't cured you sooner, buddy. I've just been really busy lately."
Timothy couldn't hear him, but if this improved retromutagen worked, then Timothy would be human again and returned to his family. Donnie acted fast in putting a drop of retromutagen on the slide and observing the results under the microscope. The cells wriggled in the green background, and the way they slowly took stable shape gave Donnie a sliver of hope.
That hope fizzled out when the sample eroded away like acid eating skin.
Donnie immediately slammed his fist onto the table with a shout and scattered several unused slides. Once again, he had failed results and no cure for Timothy. How many more failures before he found a cure? He couldn't keep taking piece after piece of Timothy to test until there was nothing left. He hadn't faced this much failure since struggling to find the brain-worm cure…now he had another massive failure to deal with.
"Hey Donnie, you okay-"
Donnie swiftly turned around and snapped, "WHAT, Mikey!?"
Mikey jumped back and held his hands up in defense. What in the world crawled up his brother's shell and turned him into Raph 2.0? "Easy, D…just checkin' on you. Oh, and we've got pizza. Are you gonna stop raging long enough to eat?"
He figured Donnie would take a deep breath and calm down and accept the offer of pizza. Donnie accepted the offer of pizza, but slammed his chair against his desk and walked out in a huff. The turtle in orange stood back from his brother and looked at the mess on his desk, sudden realization hitting him. He still couldn't find the cure for Pulverizer, could he? Mikey sighed and wished he could make a cure Donnie could use with the snap of his fingers…but even he couldn't do that.
The others were soon greeted by the sight of the steaming Donatello trudging to the kitchen. They stopped watching a movie on TV to see him going for whatever pizza was left in the kitchen. April and Andie looked back at the TV to halt from interjecting anything. Leo and Raph exchanged glances and quickly decided their brother needed time to cool off. It wasn't the first time they saw Donnie in a foul mood, and it wouldn't be the last.
Unfortunately, Donnie wouldn't be the only one in a bad mood.
They heard heavy footsteps from the tunnels and at first assumed it was Miwa. They were proven wrong when it was Cheyloe, who looked like she just came from work. Instead of her usual smile and chipper greeting, a deep scowl and hunched shoulders marred her face and body. She made no eye contact whatsoever with them as she made her way to the kitchen; for what, they didn't know. Usually when she wasn't feeling right, she went to Donnie and talked to him about it. Considering Donnie was in an equally-bad mood, however…
The others suddenly heard something fall, and heard Donnie shout, "Hey, watch it!"
Curiosity won out and they immediately planted themselves behind the kitchen doorway. Raph was the last due to having to hobble on crutches, but he was the only one brave enough to peek over and see what was going on. There was Cheyloe's purse shoved on the counter, and it knocked over a can of soda that apparently belonged to Donnie. To their surprise, the brunette didn't apologize over it; she only glared at him.
"Well, move your soda can next time!" She snapped, which the others found unusual.
Donnie narrowed his eyes while grabbing an old dish rag. "Well, somebody's not very chipper today."
The brunette suddenly rubbed at her eyes and sighed quietly, "…Sorry, sorry…it's just been a hard day, all right? Let me help you clean it up-"
"Don't." The turtle in purple halted her from grabbing some paper towels. "I can get it myself."
As Chey murmured a huffy 'you're welcome', Raph and April watched the two from behind the doorway and wondered just exactly what prompted their behavior. These two barely fought over the last slice of pizza, and the only times they raised their voices usually involved spur-of-the-moment behavior. But these two were simmering over something…something that seemed to click with the couple.
"Don's ate up over Timothy." Raph replied. "Or he's peeved about this morning."
April spoke at the same time, "She didn't get that promotion. Or she had another fight with her mom."
Whatever the reason for their sour mood, it left Donnie and Chey muttering things under their breath and cleaning up the kitchen. It was while they busied themselves that Leo and Andie rushed into the kitchen, the latter with an urgent look on her normally-apathetic face. Leo was the first to notice the tension in the room, paying no mind to the mechanical maiden typing away at a device.
"Donnie, Fugitoid's been blowing your computer up with messages." Leo began, arms crossed. "They're all marked 'urgent'. Have you-"
"I didn't exactly have time to read them all, Leo." Donnie sneered as he tossed the dish rag to the side. "I had more important-and time-consuming-matters to attend to."
The turtle in blue found himself taking a step back. "Okay…what crawled up your shell?"
Chey decided to answer, jerking her thumb towards the turtle while answering snippily, "Mr. Attitude has his belt in a bunch over some spilled soda. I wish he'd realize there's more to life than a sticky counter."
"A sticky counter caused by YOU throwing your purse around!" Donnie argued with a pointed finger.
"It was an accident!"
"It's not an accident with your bad attitude-"
"Silence!"
All heads turned towards Andromeda as she finished typing away at the small handheld device. Seeing that she finally had the quiet she desired, she calmly explained, "I will simply pull my father up via this Holo-Projector and he will relay his message. However, Donatello, I do suggest you not push aside urgent messages in favor of your personal experiments."
Donnie's lips curled into a sneer at Andie's remark. "Excuse me, 'personal experiments'? No offense, but Fugitoid's 'urgent messages' usually involve talking about alien tech. So don't try to patronize what I do!"
"Hey, don't take it out on her!" Chey jumped in, still steaming over Donnie's words. "And don't blow off Fugitoid for your little pet projects! You've been cooped up in the lab too long lately and it seems to be all you care about now!"
"Oh, this coming from the workaholic being ate up lately over a stupid promotion!" Donnie shot back.
"Well, it's certainly more important than whatever pet project you've apparently got now!"
Donnie's eyes widened in shock as he felt something snap at her jab. The better part of him knew that this wasn't Cheyloe; something had her ate up and she just redirected her anger the wrong way. He knew the same applied to himself. He should've calmed down then and there and convinced her that they needed to cool off for a while. Unfortunately, the desires to get the last word and to be right overruled any sense of rationality. Well, if it was going to get personal.
"Well, getting a promotion won't change the fact that you'll have a normal life!"
And then it happened. "Well, things would be so much easier if you weren't a-"
Donnie immediately bolted for the lab before she could finish her sentence, attempting to hide the heartbroken look on his face. He already knew what she was about to say, even as she cut herself off. He didn't need to hear what that tiny part of his mind told him all along. The slamming of the lab door didn't make those thoughts, or his anger, go away. He didn't feel like hearing anything from anyone else.
April immediately went to towards the lab and called in a stern tone, "Donnie, get back here!"
"What the hell is your problem!?" Raph shouted to the brunette. "All this over a stupid promotion!?"
As April ran to confront Donnie, there was a flash of shock on Cheyloe's face. However, it burned out quick to let her anger return, prompting a growl of frustration and bolting for the turnstiles. It was once Raph hobbled in Chey's direction that Andie finally made the device produce a holographic image of Fugitoid. Mikey and Splinter came into the kitchen to ask about the commotion when they paused at the android's image.
"Oh, thank goodness, someone responded! It's not like Donatello to brush me off like that!" Fugitoid glanced around and noticed the absent faces and tense expressions in the kitchen. "Oh dear…did something happen?"
Grimacing, Leo quietly replied, "Well…Donnie and Chey just had a huge fight. Raph and April went after them. More importantly, what's happening on your end, Fugitoid?"
Fugitoid's fiber-optic eyes changed to convey a worried expression at Leo's question. "I'm afraid I have terrible news. It's come to my attention that the Triceratons are planning on returning to Earth."
There were collective gasps from everyone except Andromeda, who immediately put the projector on the table as a tense look crossed her face. The last time they encountered the Triceratons, they almost blew up the city and Donnie almost died. They were obsessed with finding Fugitoid for that doomsday device the former and Bishop mentioned. Did they wish to capture Fugitoid once again, or did it relate to another matter?
"Are they still wanting to take you, Fugi-dude?" Mikey asked worriedly.
Fugitoid's holo-image shook his head somberly. "No…they wish to avenge Mozar. They're looking for the one who killed him. And they won't stop until they find the perpetrators…even if it means destroying the planet."
They gulped and knew exactly who the Triceratons would be looking for: Cheyloe. After all, she was the one who killed Mozar for what he did to Donnie. Unfortunately, the current situation would more than likely make her an easier target. But before they could formulate a plan on what to do, everyone glanced at the suddenly-trembling Andie. The mechanical maiden had her head lowered, though Leo could see her gritted teeth and clenched fists vibrating on the counter.
"…Andie?"
Andie suddenly began muttering under her breath, "Mozar…Triceratons…hurting more innocents. That is all they do…they only know killing…not this time…"
Andie suddenly bolted out of the kitchen to an unknown location. Fugitoid's image desperately reached out for her and he shouted, "No, Andesine, wait!"
His call went unanswered, prompting the android to sigh in defeat. That very call suddenly raised many questions, and Leo was the first to ask the obvious question. "Fugitoid…who's Andesine?"
Fugitoid glanced away in uncertainty for a moment, but quickly decided against keeping secrets. He entrusted them with keeping her safe, so it was time he did something for them in return. "Andesine is Andromeda's real name. The Triceratons are the reason she and I are in our current states. And…"
He paused, but finally confessed, "…the Triceratons killed her mother."
Well, I hope I didn't make Donnie and Chey seem out-of-character here. However, like with many people, having a bad day and not dealing with it properly can lead to some heated words. With these two arguing at the worst of times, everyone'll have to figure out how to get them reconciled before the Triceratons find them once they arrive back on Earth. Plus, Fugitoid will share the story of Andromeda's horrid experience with the Triceratons (but not in the way you think) and learn who Zera is and how she's connected to Mozar. Of course, if you watched Half-Shell Heroes, you'll know who Zera is.
Anyway, after this ficlet's up, I'll do a couple of requests involving some Cheytello and Raphril, and I'll even do a drabble of Casey meeting Gabrielle. Once again, if you have requests, feel free to share! Until then, stay tuned!