As suggested by an anonymous reviewer, I decided to update as a little Christmas gift. As an added bonus, it's long has a lot of good stuff in it. Disclaimer: I own nothing
Weapons ready, the three brothers opened the door cautiously, but as soon as the door was wide open, Raph immediately barged in and attacked the closest thing his mind registered as a threat…Bishop. Bishop immediately began to defend himself, dodging Raph's Sais and whatever else he threw at him. Normally Bishop would fight back, but he was in a room with expensive and hard-to-get equipment so he didn't want anything breaking. Instead, he opted to waste Raphael's energy and then knock him out. However, Raphael is a peculiar case; since every time Raphael missed, he seemed to gain more energy. Bishop attributed that to the turtle's rage, but Bishop knew that despite the turtle's boost, he will eventually succumb to tiredness.
With caution now thrown to the wind (much to Leo's annoyance), Don and Leo charged. Leo took on Stockman while Donatello went to Mikey. "Hey Don. Am I glad to see you and your bros!"
At first Don was confused, he had given Mikey a drug a few hours ago that should have taken effect by now. The boy shouldn't really recognize him. Mikey saw Don's confusion and said, "Stockman gave me an antidote so when this blows over, we're going to have to go to Plan B."
Don freed Mikey from his straps and helped him up, "If I can think of a plan B." Don grabbed the boy's hand. "Come on. Let's get out of here." Don pulled Mikey to the exit.
From the corner of his eye, Leo saw Don pull Mikey out of the room. "Raph!" he yelled. "Let's get out of here!"
As usual, Raph followed his own agenda. "Not just yet!" Raph immediately caught Bishop off guard and shoved him up the wall. He held his Sai dangerously close to his neck. Despite being in grave danger, Bishop was unfazed. "Where's our brother?!"
For the first time, Leo was not angry at Raph for disobeying orders. He, too, copied Raph. Using one sword, he pinned Stockman's robotic arm to the wall and with the other, dangerously brought it close to the only living thing in Stockman. "Unless you want a new robotic form again, I suggest you tell us where our youngest brother is," Leo snarled.
"Go ahead and kill me. I'd much prefer to rest in peace rather than suffer in this form under Bishop," Stockman retorted.
Leo growled. This was not going to be easy so he pierced the metal where Stockman's brain was underneath but not so deep that his sword met contact with the robot's brain. Stockman, seeing what Leo was doing, actually smiled.
Donatello, seeing what was going on, decided to do the selfish thing and stay with his bros rather than get the boy to safety. He shut the door and locked it so the guards won't get in, and the two captives won't escape. Just in case, Stockman and Bishop got lose, Don positioned his body in front of the boy and held out his bo-staff, ready for a fight at a moment's notice.
"TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" Raph screamed in such rage that Leo and Don never knew possible. Mikey even shook a little.
Bishop smirked. "Please, you cannot kill me. I have survived everything from slavery to fighting in the Civil War to alien abduction and countless battles against extraterrestrial threats. Nothing can kill me, especially not your Sai."
"Then I'll make it hurt," Raph growled, and with his other Sai, he swiped at Bishop's chest and stomach. Bishop let out a feral scream. Blood began staining his white shirt. Leo and Don were in shock. This was absolutely nothing compared to just twenty minutes ago when Raph threatened one of Bishop's men. Never had they witnessed such brutality coming from their brother. Sure they had seen him take out his anger on unlucky Purple Dragons and Foot Clan ninjas, but he only used his Sais to disarm and defeat never to draw blood, but as shocked as they were, they could not blame Raph for it. Leo was even hoping that some good would come out of it.
"NOW WILL YOU TALK?" Raph yelled.
"Never," Bishop painfully said, losing that emotionless and cold tone.
This time Raph just stabbed Bishop in the stomach. Bishop leaned forward in pain and fell to his knees. Raph let him, and when his knees hit the ground, Raph grabbed a fistful of hair, jerked his head back, and pressed his clean Sai against his throat. "How about now?" Raph growled. The sound was less like a wolf or lion growling but more like the growl of a demon.
"Oh please," Stockman said, sounding rather annoyed about what's happening rather than terrified at seeing his partner getting tortured. "There's no need to torture the man."
All eyes turned to Stockman. Leo narrowed his. "Why? What do you know?"
"I honestly can't believe you all haven't figured it out by now, especially Donatello. Ha! You may be the smart one, but even you can be an idiot," Stockman said, his holographic face staring at Don in contemptuous annoyance. Don glared back.
"Figure out what?" he said.
"Stockman! No!" Bishop warned. Raph just drove his knee him in the stomach.
"That your brother is the same person who's standing right behind you," Stockman revealed.
With the exception of Bishop's labored breathing, everything was dead silent. A pin could drop, and everyone could hear it.
"Wh-what?" Don stammered.
Stockman rolled his holographic eyebrows. "Your brother and the boy you're trying to rescue are the same person. We turned Michelangelo human six months after capturing him. It had the nasty side effect of temporary memory loss which we corrected by drugging him to prevent him from regaining his memories. Ha! We added enough drugs in his system that even after a year and four months without getting it, he has yet to remember."
It felt as of everything Michelangelo felt went down the drain. He felt empty not the depressingly empty but shockingly empty. Everything that he figured about himself, all the good times he had since escaping Bishop and finding a family was shocked out of existence. He finally learned the truth, and yet he did not feel full. It was too hard to comprehend, but at the same time, it explained everything. And yet, despite hearing the stone cold truth from the perpetrator's assistant, it could not break the barrier in his mind. Finally, Mikey spoke up.
"So all this time, I was with my original family?"
"Yes. Seriously, you felt some kind of familiarity to them? All this time living with them temporarily and you never questioned how their missing brother eerily shared many qualities with you? Wow, you really are clueless. Of course, Bishop did theorize that your cluelessness and naivety in your turtle life carried on to your human life, helping the drug strengthen the barrier holding your memories."
Raph turned his attention to Bishop. "Is Stockman correct? Is the kid really our brother?"
"Yes," Bishop said painfully.
Raph turned his attention back to his newly found youngest brother. "Mikey," he whispered in shock. "It-it's you. It's really you."
Mikey just looked at Raph blankly. He felt nothing. No recognition of brotherhood. No feelings of fraternal love. No memories rushing to the surface. No nothing. He just didn't know what to think or what to feel. He could feel Don's and Leo's shocked but joyful faces on him. He knew they just wanted to embrace him and will do so as soon as possible, but he could not return the same affections. Somewhere in the distance, he heard Bishop's scream and a thud. It only registered to him that Bishop must have lost consciousness from blood loss and shock, but he won't die. Somewhere in that same distance he heard the sound of metal piercing metal and Leo shouting "Let's go home!" He didn't know if they killed Stockman or further incapacitate him, but he didn't care as long as he stayed the hell away from him.
He felt Don lovingly put his arm around him and lead him out the door and to the Battle Shell while Raph and Leo guarded them from in front and behind. He didn't even pay attention to where they had to go. He ran the whole time, and all he could remember was being on an elevator. Boarding the Battle Shell was fuzzy, too. He wasn't sure if Don had to push him on or just wanted to rest his hand on his back. Perhaps Don was trying to ground himself, too. If only there was something to ground Mikey.
Somewhere he could hear the turtles (no his brothers) excitedly babble on about him. His nerve endings barely registered their touch. He just didn't know what to think. It should have been so damn obvious. Didn't he used to dream of a mutant turtle named Mikey that acted and looked like a toddler? Didn't he dream about a purple banded and an orange banded creature when he was in the hospital? Didn't he flashbacked to a mutant rat that looked exactly like Master Splinter? Shouldn't that have told him the obvious? But why didn't it register? And why could he still not remember? And why can't Don and Raph stop hugging him? Were they trying to suffocate him to death?
In what seemed like forever and yet felt like no time has passed, they were at the old Water Treatment Plant. He felt cold scaly hands gently take his arm and lead him out of the Battle Shell and into the Lair. They didn't hover over him. Maybe they realized that he needed a little space.
"We're home!" Raph shouted excitedly.
Master Splinter hobbled over. "I see you have returned with the boy safe and sound. I'm glad." Master Splinter's tone betrayed his sentiments. Although he truly was glad for the boy's safe return, he was hoping for his own son's return and was disappointed to not see his orange clad turtle.
"Master Splinter," Leo began, "we have great news!"
"What is it, my son?"
"We found Mikey!" Raph answered for Leo.
Master Splinter looked at the boy. "I see."
Leo, seeing his confusion, explained, "When we found this kid, Raph…threatened Bishop to tell us where our brother is. Stockman revealed that our brother and this kid are one in the same. Bishop transformed Mikey into a human."
Master Splinter's eyes went wide. "Are-are you sure, my son?"
Then a light bulb went off in Don's head. "Wait! I can confirm it. When Mikey was in my infirmary, I took some blood from Mikey. He reminded me too much of my brother, and I remember reading those documents April sent us so hypothesized that he might our brother-turned-human. I put his blood in my DNA synthesizer to test for our brother's inactive mutant turtle DNA a month ago. I just got the results. They're in my lab."
"Go get them, my son."
Don ran to his lab and snatched the paper. He came back and read the results. "It's a match. You are our brother," Don said.
Master Splinter fell to his knees, crying tears of joy. "All these years, and…I…I thought…My son, you came back to us. You're home." He looked at his human son. "My son, now that you know the truth, do you remember me now?"
Master Splinter and his three eldest sons looked at Mikey expectantly. No one had discussed his amnesia going away since learning the truth. Mikey could only look at them blankly. "No…I don't…I need to be alone." He ran to Michelangelo's room (his room) and immediately locked the door behind him. He tore down shelves of comics, action figures, posters, old drawings, anything to trigger his memory. He rummaged through old drawings and comic sketches and did not experience one single flashback.
I thought art was the salvation of the soul or some stupid shit like that he frustrating thought.
Then somewhere in the mess he created, he found an old book decorated with lots of orange and superheroes and glitter. He opened it up to see several handwritten pages, and it clicked inside of him that this was a journal from his…past life. His hands shook. This held the key to unlock the wall in his subconscious. Mikey immediately opened it.
The first page was an introduction. He read…
Dear Stan,
Do you like that name? I thought Dear Diary or something like that was so unoriginal so I thought you know what? We're named after Renaissance artists so I thought I do the same thing here, but I couldn't think of any Renaissance artists so instead I decided to name you after the greatest artist in the world Stan Lee - the creator of The Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron man, Spider-Man, Thor, Daredevil, the Avengers, and the X-Men. I swear if he created Superman and Batman in addition to those superheroes, he is officially God. He is the creator of the universe. He is the inspiration for Justice Force. He. Is. Awesome.
So yeah, I shortened it to Stan. Anyway, Don gave this to me as a Christmas present. He said that now I should have something to occupy myself rather than bother him in his lab (not that it will work, but nice try Donny!) I know that's only partially true. The real reason was that I mentioned to Don about creating my own comic series, but I need to practice my creative writing so he gave me this book. I figured starting a diary would be a great way to practice and it could help me cope with everything that's going on.
So yeah that's it! Christmas was awesome as always, but there's nothing really to say so bye.
Love,
Mikey
Mikey continued to read more. He read about meeting April and Casey, their battles with the Foot Clan and the Shredder, the Purple Dragons, the Triceratons, Sh'Okanabo, and many others. He read about their adventures in parallel dimensions, other planets, cyberspace, and 2105, but most of all he read about everyday life – annoying Raph, boring mediation sessions, hanging out with Don in his lab, mocking Leo behind his back as he lectures, and other scenes of daily life. He especially paid attention to his thoughts and feelings – his love for his family, his dreams of being the next Stan Lee, his lack of self-confidence in all things ninja and how he can tell his family feels the same way about him, his wishes for his father to take an active interest in his life rather than just making him work hard in his father's greatest interest (ninjutsu), and his desire to be human despite how much he loves being a turtle, and every time, Mikey read this, chunks and chunks of the wall fell as memories flooded into his conscious. He remembered his childhood, his brothers, his father, and his various human and not so human friends. He remembered the feelings he had felt, his hopes and dreams. He remembered past birthdays and holidays, good days and bad days. He remembered the battles he fought, the tears he cried, and the love he had. He remembered it all, and all he could do was cry softly.
After he finished his tiny waterworks, he wondered what do next. He supposed he should go outside, announce that he got his memories back, and start a lovefest, but honestly, he didn't. For the longest time, Mikey dreamed of getting his memories back, because getting them back meant he would finally know who he was, but in the process he ended up finding out who he already was without the help of his memories. Now that he knows his past, he feels like he doesn't know who he is anymore. Information about himself had been compromised. But that wasn't what made Mikey hesitant to rejoin his old family, it was what the life he made and the friends and family he found as a human that stopped him. He could still feel that he loved his brothers. Somehow, they always remained in a special place in his heart as evident by the friendship he shared with them when he lost his memories. It was everything else. He loved being a human more than being a turtle. Would that change the relationship he had with his brothers? That was one of the reasons they were so close; they only had each other because no one would accept they, but now that was changed. He was accepted by the outside world, and they still weren't.
But Mikey realized that was probably the least of his problems. If his memory is to be trusted, they will still love him no matter what? No, it went deeper than this. When he saw his rat father asked if he remembered him, all Mikey could see was John's face. He loves John as a father and that hasn't changed, but even though he now knows his real dad, he still sees John as his father. In fact, he preferred John over his own. John and Master Splinter were similar in the fact that they both have honor and fight for good, but that was it. While Master Splinter had an air of formality and only really interacted with them during practice, John was much more laid back. He was always there for him and spent a lot of time with Mikey over common interests. Most importantly, John encouraged Mikey to pursue his interests and was proud when he succeeded. That's more than his own father had done, but this preference didn't sicken him. He was not sure if he should be sickened by that. Another reason was that Mikey didn't want to lose a chance to live his human life and accomplish his dreams. He loved his new friends and family, but most of all, he loved the opportunities he was presented with. He was free to run for fun on a team, learn to surf, go to art school, and become a graphic novelist. He was free to travel the world, walk in the sunshine, party with people, and just have fun. He didn't want to lose that, but his most important reason was this: He wasn't insecure.
As a mutant turtle, he never felt like he was good enough for his family. Sure he participated in battles and helped his family win them, but that was it. He never really had a moment to his own where his family could be proud of him of accomplishing something that was totally his thing. His father would rather see him focus on ninjutsu than practicing his art and writing; Leo is on par with master Splinter but a little more tolerant; Raph just sneers at his love for superheroes and everything he fan boys over (which is why he'll never know his dreams). Don was probably the closest to feel something close to support or even pride, but even then he thinks of him as just a goofball and a bit of an idiot. The only thing he had to go by was ninjutsu, and even then his family didn't really believe in him. He could feel it in the way they acted, especially Master Splinter, and if they didn't believe him, why should he? The one time he did do something great was winning the Battle Nexus, and even that was dumb luck. He knew that, so he boasted to convince himself that he did something awesome and to make his family proud of him. It didn't work, and when he got his rematch, well, only Leo seemed really proud of him. Don and Raph were just hoping that he wouldn't boast about it to them, and Master Splinter felt as if he learned an important lesson. Nothing he did ever really pleased his family.
But as a human, it was a whole different story. His parents were proud of who he was and for his accomplishments in what he loves. His mother loves his bright and sunny personality, telling him to embrace his ADHD because that's what makes him who he is. He never recalled Master Splinter telling him to embrace his boundless energy. It always seemed like he was telling him to bottle it up and become more disciplined in life. He'll never forget how awesome he felt when Nora told him "That's my boy" and when John told him how proud he was when Mikey won the state championships in a sport that he loved. And not just his parents, his art teacher praised his art skills and his personality. He thought he was the most individualistic, creative, and artistic person ever. Ms. Darby thought he had an interesting mind. Interesting! No one ever praised his mind before in his turtle life. They thought he was an idiot. Only Don got praise for mind.
He started crying. He just didn't know what to do. He loves his human life, but he can't walk away from his newfound past. At the same time, he just can't imagine himself abandoning his mother and father or his friends, but he also has his original family and friends to think about. Worst of all, he didn't really know who he is anymore. His life is a canyon. On one side was his turtle life and on the other is his human life. They are so vastly different that there's just nothing connecting them. And where was he? He was in the bottom in the river as currents tug at him left and right while trying to drown him in the process, and he's just trying to keep his head afloat.
Mikey needed air before the river completely drowned him. He couldn't face his old family, but he's not ready to go back to his new family. He wished he could talk to Mom and Dad about this, but he promised to keep his old family's life a secret. He couldn't talk to his old family because it'll hurt them to know how he feels. He needs to talk to a third party; someone who understands what he's going through but would still respect his need for secrecy. Someone like…Nestor.
Grabbing the journal, Mikey opened the door slightly ajar and assessed his surroundings. He remembered that Master Splinter and Leo were especially good at detecting the softest of sounds, but luckily it appeared that neither of them was in the living room. Neither was Don, but Raph was punching his punching bag, but with the noise he was making and how focused he was on it, Mikey doubt Raph would hear or even see him. Mikey squeezed out of the door and using ninja stealth, he sneaked down stairs and past Raph. He stealthily made his way to the door and carefully opened it. Luckily Raph didn't hear it creak. Mikey carefully walked outside and close the door. As soon as he was outside, he ran. He didn't care if his brothers and…father were going to be worried when they found out he was missing, he just needed to run.
