"Helloooo?! Sparrow dude?! You around here?!" called Mikey as the turtles were, once again, wandering the sewers searching for a mutant. Fortunately, this time the mutant they were looking for wasn't a threat.
"Mikey, you've interacted with Malachi the most. Don't you have any idea where he might have gone?" asked Leo as their searching had gotten them nowhere fast.
"Yeah, I've met him the most, but that was for like one session of Mazes and Mutants. I haven't seen the dude in forever."
"It's a good thing I brought my scanner, then," said Donnie, waving the device in front of him and looking for any signal of mutant activity.
"Are we even sure that the guy is still in the sewers?" asked Leo.
"Yeah," added Raph, "most humans I know wouldn't consider the New York sewers prime real estate."
All Donnie could do was shrug. Unfortunately, Malachi was a lot harder to find than some of the other mutants. Martin Milton, or in his LARPing alias he went by, Malachi, wasn't anything like the Squirrelinoids. He wasn't a vicious unthinking animal, just an innocent, unfairly mutated, young human. That meant that he wouldn't just stay in one spot because he didn't know any better how to get out, he would go where he wanted to go. And none of the brothers knew the young sparrow-mutant well enough to know where he would want to go. Which, turtle luck running true to form, led to further hours of fruitless searching through the sewers. The best idea Donnie could come up with was to start where they had first met Malachi and radiate out from there. Of course, that was going off the assumption that he had stayed in the sewers, and not gone to stay somewhere topside, like Spiderbytez and Snakeweed had. So far all they had to show for it was two days of searching, getting covered with sewer gunk, and a slowly developing migraine for Donatello.
But third times the charm, right?
They had gone even further out from the original spot, down to a virtual labyrinth of abandoned sewer tunnels, old building projects, and who even knew what. Donnie figured you could probably hide a whole hidden society underneath New York.
A whole society would probably be easier to find than one lone sparrow mutant, he privately despaired, staring harshly at the device in his hand as if he could force it to do something. He couldn't help but give a triumphant whoop when his scanner finally gave the barest blip of activity. It might not have even been Martin, and the signal might have been faint, but it was the most indication they had gotten in days that they were even remotely in the right spot.
"This way, guys!" encouraged Donnie, taking off at a brisk jog in the general direction the scanner pointed, mood lifting as the signal got stronger with every stride. His brothers looked at each other a moment, before following from behind.
He only slowed down when he noticed the walls of the tunnel looked...off. His brothers slammed into the back of his shell when he stopped suddenly to peer closely at their new surroundings.
"Donnie, why'd you stop?" asked Leo, trying to follow his brother's gaze.
"The walls," he mused, looking up towards the ceiling, "Something's off about them. They look more like wood than concrete."
Raph rolled his eyes, retorting, "Ok so the City of New York decided to do a little interior decorating. Who cares?"
Donnie only hummed contemplatively to himself, staring at the walls another moment before shrugging and continuing forwards.
This time the whole team slowed as the sewer tunnel grew more and more...wrong. As they progressed the walls shifted into straight wooden panels, and the roof leveled out into white, slightly cracked, plaster. As they walked further, Leo paused to stare out of an unsettling window that had appeared, showing the city, but in a way that looked hazy. Unclear. The buildings all there, but lacking detail. He shuddered and tore his gaze away to look at his younger brother and his scanner, instead.
As if the creepy changing surrounding hadn't been enough to convince them, the scanner's blips indicated that they were getting closer and closer to a mutant. As they got closer, they all cautiously got their weapons out as they started to hear voices. By now the scanner was beeping constantly, and the area around them had completely transformed. The tunnel had turned to a narrow hallway, the walls a cracked gray plaster and the formerly concrete floor now covered in a dingy once-multi-colored carpet. Leo shared a concerned look with Raph, them both turning to their genius brother for an explanation. He didn't look concerned at all, and in fact looked relieved. Glancing at the shifted ceiling he commented, "Looks like we found our mutant. We must be in one of his illusions."
From the back of the pack Mikey investigated the spooky hallway, tapping a framed blurry picture and watching it sway. "Weird," he observed, "This is almost, like, freakier than the medieval dungeon."
"Yeah, something about this place seems wrong, somehow," added Leo, remembering the weird window he had seen before and noticing that the picture on the wall was similarly unclear and fuzzy. "So, guys, let's get our weapons out, just in case."
The team did as he said, except Donnie, who continued to peer at the sensor. A bit walking later and the voice was clearer, and they could tell that it was in fact that of the sparrow mutant they were looking for. They were stopped short by a door that materialized in front of them, the four in the 74 hanging on the door slightly crooked.
"Haha," they could hear the young wizard laugh, "Your cooking is always the best."
To their surprise, a voice replied, sounding like an older woman, who laughed lightly and replied, "What a flatterer my son is." There was a pause in-between, like an actor waiting for a cue and the turtles looked at eachother uneasily. The woman spoke again, sounding sly, "If only you could use that flattery to bring home a girl."
"Maaaaaa," whined Malachi, though his voice sounded like a contradictory mixture of mortified embarrassment, mirth, and trying not to cry all at once.
Amidst this dialogue, the teens all looked to the eldest brother, wondering what to do. Leo stiffened his shoulders, setting his face determinedly, and put a hand around the doorknob to open the door.
The sewer tunnels looked like an apartment. A slightly dinghy but homey looking kitchen spread out in front of them, and they could see a similarly small and comfortable living area to the side. Beyond the kitchen there appeared to be more house, but this was swathed in shadows. In the kitchen they were met with the sight of the familiar Malachi, sitting at a beat up kitchen table with a plate of meatloaf in front of him. And a human woman sat across from him, a cheerful, but slightly blank, expression on her face as she leaned on the table. Swiftly turning her head, she grinned at the turtles, remarking, "Martin! You didn't tell me you were having friends over!"
The young sparrow looked at the turtles with confusion, saying aloud, "I wasn't planning on it."
"Hi, Malachi," greeted Leo carefully, looking at the human woman with caution and some concern.
The other mutant seemed to recover from his confusion quickly, standing up in his chair and greeting enthusiastically, "Greetings, young turtle! Hast thou arrived to join-eth us for supper?"
"Uhhhh…" stammered the leader, unsure what to say.
"Malachi, we came here to help you," Donatello stepped up to earnestly inform the young man, spreading his arms wide and gesturing at the general surroundings.
Rather than looked happy about this, the bird's beak turned to a frown, and Donatello's words seemed to make him panic, "That not be-ith thine usual dialogue," in a lower tone he muttered to the table, "This hast been a most puzzling first."
Malachi's mother frowned as he did, and he shook his head.
Donnie took another step towards the table, holding his hand out reassuringly, "Malachi," the turtle paused, thought about it, and amended, "Martin. It's alright. We came here to help," he held up his vial of retromutagen for the sparrow to see, explaining kindly, "This is retromutagen. We can use it on you to make you human again."
"Human again?" echoed Martin, dropping his persona's accent and staring down at his feathery form in detached wonder. As he thought, his face grew stormy again, and he shook his head - the world around them shuddering for a moment as he did. "No!" he shouted, gripping at his head, "This isn't real. I'm making you say this!"
His "mother" grew fuzzy before their eyes, her face switching from an absent smile, to a distressed frown, to motherly concern and back again. The apartment around them similarly grew indistinct, the side rooms filling with shadow until all that remained was the kitchen, lit by a single light.
"There is no cure," Martin muttered to himself, pounding his hands against the table for emphasis, "There is no cure, this isn't real. Don't do this to yourself again."
"Uhh, I think this sparrow mighta turned into a cuckoo bird," remarked Raph, looking on to the scene with slightly fearful concern.
Said sparrow looked swiftly up, pointing to Raph as he did, "See, that's exactly what the real Rapheal would say. I'm getting too good at this," he babbled panickedly, leaning his head in his arms against the now-flickering table. "Now I can't even recognize my own illusions," he said with a small hysteric laugh.
The apartment around them grew darker, the walls of the New York sewers filling in around them and the human woman disappearing with a panicked grimace. The area was starting to look normal again, though everything was enveloped with dark shadows that was more than just the results of being underground.
Donnie looked at the young mutant with sympathy, before his eyes lit up in determination and he walked up to the lone bird with meaningful strides. The sparrow had started to hyperventilate, tears growing at the corners of his eyes and his breath coming out in soft twittering gasps. The closer Donnie got, the more alarmed and confused Malachi looked.
Looking him in the eyes, the purple-banded turtle crouched down at the much smaller mutant's side, placing a steadying hand on his shoulder as he did. "Martin, I'm real, I promise." He held up the vial in Martin's line of sight, saying with conviction, "This is a real retromutagen, and it can help you."
"Wait, really?" he asked haltingly, looking at where Donnie's hand met his shoulder and finally coming to the realization this all was actually happening.
Donatello nodded, smiling reassuringly and his brothers did the same.
"We can turn you human again, Malachi," Leo told him, "All we need is an ok from you."
"Yes!" the sparrow mutant exclaimed, the settings surrounding them finally turning back to their normal state as he stood up from the block of concrete he had been sitting on. "Yes, please!"
Donnie went to give him the retromutagen but was stopped surprised when Mikey threw an arm in his path. "Wait, D!" he said, narrowing his eyes at Malachi, "How do we know that that's actually Malachi, you know? He's not talking all medieval-ly."
Everyone shot the youngest turtle a look at that, Raph pulling Mikey roughly aside as he did. "Pretty sure we've got the right dorky sewer sparrow, Mikey," he said. Thinking on it, he added, grumbling, "At least we better. I'm so done with looking through the sewers all day."
Malachi laughed nervously, commenting, "I'm pretty sure I've never made an illusion of myself, before," his beak twisted thoughtfully, and he tapped at the general area of his chin, "I'm not even sure how that would work. Sounds like it'd be a bit of a headache."
Donnie prepped the retromutagen, pulling on gloves and carefully sucking the viscous semi-liquid into a dropper to not waste any of it. It was a relief to finally have someone receiving the cure be consenting and still. It made it so much easier to use a carefully measured dose.
Retromutagen in the dropper, Donnie held it aloft, explaining to Martin before he did anything, "Now, just so you know this is pretty much permanent. And also painful, for about a minute. It'll make you human again, just like you were. Which means you won't be able to use your illusions anymore," he warned cautiously.
Malachi whistled dismissively at the warning, "That's alright."
"But, dude, your sick LARPing seshes," posed Mikey, wide-eyed at the thought of removing such possible awesome creative experiences from the world.
"Ah, a true Dungeon Master weaveth a gripping adventure fromst his wordes, not magical powers," the role-player pronounced, posing proudly. Posture deflating, he fiddled with his hands, adding in his normal voice, "Besides, I miss my mom and she needs me. No way I can live with her like this," he stated with a sad warble, gesturing at his whole situation.
The tallest turtle nodded sympathetically with a small smile. Gesturing with the prepared dropper, he asked, "So are you ready, then?"
He was about to say yes, but then paused, wringing his hands again. "You said it hurts?" he asked the scientist worriedly
Donnie grimaced, wishing he could find a way to fix that side effect. But there was no real way to change the fact that morphing a being's entire physical structure inside and out was a process that was going to hurt. He made a mental note to maybe try and bring some pain relievers with him next time they found one of the sentient mutants that needed the cure. For now, though, he could only say apologetically, "Yeah. But-" he quickly reassured, "every test says that it's only painful for a few seconds, a minute at most."
"Ok, ok, in that case," he took a deep breath, steadying himself before replying, looking up to Donnie with confidence, "I'm ready."
"Alright, then," Donnie started to move the dropper over the smaller mutant's head - Malachi closing his eyes in preparation as he did - but paused as his gaze flickered to the sparrow's wooden leg. "Um, actually, you're probably going to have to take that off, first," he said awkwardly, gesturing at the make-shift prosthetic with his head, "It might cause some problems while your body is shifting. Could cause damage."
Malachi opened his eyes, taking a moment to realize what the turtle was referring to. "Oh," he said with a surprised chirrup. Leaning over to untie the prosthetic he mentioned, "I suppose that makes sense." While he struggled to untie the whittled wood from his leg, Leo looked on in minor horror.
"Mutating didn't make you lose your leg, did it?" he asked in concern, knowing that all things concerned they had seen far more brutal effects from mutation but still, losing a leg? That would be so strangely specifically cruel.
To his relief (?) the small bird waved off the concern as he took the prosthetic off and set it aside, "No, no , no. This," he gestured to his feathered stump in the place of the wooden leg, "Was already, ah, like this. Mutating just made it so my old prosthetic didn't fit right anymore."
"Ah, that's, good, I guess," Leo floundered, not having met anyone missing a limb and not certain he was going about it the right way. Martin didn't seem to mind though, and sat down - once again readying himself for the retromutagen.
Donnie hovered the dropper over him, counting down as he did. "In three, two, one," with a squeeze, his distributed a sizable drop onto the mutant's head, holding his breath in anticipation despite knowing full well the retromutagen would work.
On the ground, Martin squirmed and screamed as the reverse-mutation began, working its way through his body. His feathers seemed to suck back into his skin, the pale pink human skin stretching out over it in its place. His beak softened and melted back into a human nose and lips.
In less then a minute, the process was over, and Martin Milton was back to his human self. He stared at his human hand wonderingly, running it over his face and gasping in joy to feel a pudgy human nose instead of a hard sparrow's beak.
With a wide smile, he tried to shoot up to his feet, stumbling on his one leg as he did. His arms wind-milled, but he was caught by an equally smiling Donatello before he could fall back to the ground. Tears of joy pricked at the side of his eyes, and he stared gratefully at the taller turtle. "Thank you," he said empathetically.
Donnie could not stop smiling. This was why they were doing this. No matter how much effort it took to find all of the mutants, no matter how much pain it was to make the retromutagen, he knew that returning people to joy, giving them their lives back would make all of it worth it a thousand times over. "You're welcome," he replied.
The trek back up to the surface was a little longer than expected. Between not having used human limbs in a while and being short a leg, the ex-mutant made slow time through the vast sewers up to the street. But he didn't complain once. Instead he talked cheerfully of seeing his mom again, and that he would have to call his roleplaying buddies when he got back.
The turtles at last dropped the young man at the doorstep of his apartment. Martin clutched the edge of the door to steady himself, waving aggressively at the turtles with his free hand as he did. "Many gracious thanks, turtle friends!" he declared. "Mayhaps we can meet again for some Mazes and Mutants?" Throwing his cape over his shoulder, he ended, "Until then, farewell!" Turning around, he hobbled at a surprising speed into the building. "Mom!" they heard his retreating voice call.
"Martin, you're home!" cried the same voice that the turtles had heard in the sewers, though this one was choked with tears and love and they knew there was no copying the real effect of a parent's love.
Amidst the sounds of the happy reunion, the turtles headed back into the shadows. Except for Donnie, who lingered to listen to the tearful back and forth of the two Miltons, before, he, too followed with a hopeful smile.
Well, hello again, this took a while!
I actually kinda stopped thinking about this fic, but I told myself if people showed interest I'd pick it up again. And a comment on AO3 recently reminded of this fic's existence, so I sat down finished up this WIP chapter. ^^
The moral of the story here is that comments work, haha.
I'll try to work on this intermittently, though some mutants may get cut. But I'll try to not abandon them all twice, haha.
Hope you enjoyed. I'll try and remember this story exists but don't get your hopes up for regular uploads, lol. See you all next chapter. :)