Hello.
Surely, people still read fics for the 2012 turtles, right?
Ok, so, I have the first 12 chapters of this story already typed out. From there, I'm still working on this. This story is pretty bad story-wise, especially in the beginning, and descriptions are weak. (Or, at least, in my opinion. If you think it's good, then... cool.) Enjoy this thing that came out of nowhere.
Donnie groaned. His head was hurting, he was lying on his back (or, in his case, his shell) and he had no idea where he was.
He sat up, groaning again, and rubbed the back of his head. He opened his eyes and looked around, trying to take in all of his surroundings.
At first glance, he appeared to be in a clearing. There was a nice, clear pond to his right, a forest to his left, and, just ahead of him, a path that led around the forest. Donnie stared at the trail, wondering where it led to, then turned his attention back to the right.
There was a big, metal wall.
Panicking, Donnie bolted to his feet and rushed over to the wall, just to make sure it was actually there. He felt the cool metal under his fingers, a stark contrast to what must have been around 70 or 80 degrees in the clearing. He started banging on it, then he started kicking it. He was almost completely out of breath before he stopped, finally realizing that the wall would not budge.
He glanced down at his hands and frowned when he didn't see the wraps that are usually around his wrists and knuckles. He also didn't see any of his padding, or his belt, and he didn't feel the familiar weight of his bo staff, either.
So, he was trapped, had a headache, no weapons or materials, and he was starting to feel too warm.
He reached up, hoping that he at least still had his mask.
No such luck.
He fell to his knees, wondering what was going on. Someone must have captured him at some point, surely. Who could it have been? Stockman? Tigerclaw? Rahzar?
The most likely candidate was Stockman. The recreated environment was accurate enough to pass for real if not for the giant metal wall in front of him. But why give him a (somewhat) comfortable environment? Why not toss him in a cell or something?
No, someone else, an outside force, was holding him hostage. Donnie eyed the path that led around the forest for a moment. As dangerous as it was, he was going to have to follow that path in the hopes that he would run into someone and demand some answers, though he was in no condition to demand anything.
Rubbing his temples, Donnie stood back up again, slowly this time. He walked the path, admiring the work done to make it look nature made. He was surrounded by trees on his left, more field on his right.
After a while of walking, Donnie found a little picnic table sitting in front of another metal wall with a door in it. His heart beat a little faster when he saw the door. After all, that was his way out.
What really shocked him were the ones sitting at the table. He didn't notice them at first, but as they all fell silent, Donnie studied each one of them.
There were five turtles sitting at the table, all of which appeared to be 7 or 8 years old by human standards. Four of them were boys and there was one girl. Two of the boys had lime green skin, except one of them had a big splotch of brown across his muzzle. One of the other turtles had a pale green color, and the other boy had dark green skin. The girl's skin was more of a rich emerald green.
They all stared at each other for what felt like ages before one of the kids, the pale green turtle, picked up a bowl and offered it to Donnie.
"Food!" he exclaimed. Donnie blinked.
"What?" he asked. The kid's smile grew.
"Food!" he said again. He got up and handed Donnie the bowl, big smile still on his face. Donnie was confused at first before noticing the multicolored things inside the bowl.
Food pellets? Donnie wondered to himself. Sure looked like it...
He looked questioningly at the kid, who wasn't paying him any attention anymore. He had gone back to his friends, who also weren't paying attention, and was sharing some food with one of them. Donnie watched them stuff their faces with the multicolored mess with big smiles on their faces.
Donnie decided right then and there that no, he was not going to eat this... whatever it was.
He walked over to the table and set the bowl back down, alerting the children once more to his presence.
"Um... no thank you," Donnie said. It got a little awkward with the kids staring at him, so he added, "I'm not very hungry..."
"Food?" asked the pale-skinned kid. Donnie was starting to lose his patience, but he managed to smile at the kid, who smiled back.
"I'm just not that hungry," he said. The kid turned to his friends.
"No food?" he asked them.
"No food," they confirmed. He nodded his head and turned to the door.
"No food!" he shouted. Donnie was confused and worried for this child's sanity for a moment before the door opened.
His eyes widened as he took in the person before him. She looked Hispanic, with long, dark hair braided behind her back, warm, brown eyes, and a nice, warm skin color. She was wearing green scrubs, and under her shirt was a pink long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
Donnie gasped upon seeing her. So that's who his captors were... scientists...
He backed away from her quickly, glancing at the children. They didn't seem scared of the woman, or of what she could possibly do to them. He debated the best way to grab all of them while continuing to back away from the woman. He glanced to the door behind her. She had closed it. Donnie scanned her outfit for a card or keys of any sort.
Her uniform had a lot of pockets. Maybe she had something useful in one of them. He searched for a bulge in one of the pockets, formed from a key.
Unfortunately, he didn't see anything. He glanced at the badge pinned to her pants: Amy Stooke. Occupation: healthcare, nanny, nurse.
Okay... maybe she wasn't a scientist. But she could still be working for them. No doubt they would want him.
She stopped walking towards him, finally sensing that he didn't want her to come close to him. She smiled nervously at him, making Donnie frown. Seeing that she posed no real threat, Donnie stopped backing away from her, though he didn't get any closer.
"Hello there," she said slowly, as if he was a baby or a child. "I'm not going to hurt you."
Donnie shifted his left foot behind him, ready to back away or run if necessary.
"My name is Amy Stooke," she introduced herself. "Everything is alright. There's no need to continue backing away from me."
"Where exactly am I?" Donnie demanded. He glanced at one of the trees in his peripheral. Maybe he could snap off one of the branches and use it as a temporary weapon until he could find his staff.
"You're at the Mutant Control Center," she answered him. Donnie froze on the spot. No, he couldn't be... it was... he was...
"M.C.C.?" he repeated. She nodded, still smiling, and all thoughts of escape fled his mind. If he was at M.C.C., he was never getting out of here, not on his own. He might be able to do it if his brothers were with him, but-
HIS BROTHERS! He started looking around frantically, trying to see them, his heart sinking when he realized that if they were there, he would have seen them already.
M.C.C... He couldn't be there. He and his brothers had heard of the place, but it was somewhere even RAPH wouldn't go to. Mutants in general feared the area. They say that if a mutant goes in, they don't come back out. If Donnie was really in the M.C.C., then he would never see his brothers again.
He felt like crying, like falling to the ground and curling up and just letting it loose, but he pressed his lips together and held it in until the feeling passed. No way was he going to just lie there in defeat. That's not how he was raised.
"The M.C.C. isn't what you think it is," she said. "We don't want to study the insides, just how mutants live a day-to-day life."
"And you do that by locking them in a giant metal cage and watching their every move?" Donnie asked, forcing some anger into his voice but not really feeling it. She didn't seem to notice, though, as her expression faltered for just a moment.
"It's better than what other organizations would do, is it not?" she asked. Donnie thought about that for a moment and decided that was correct. As inhumane as it is to lock someone in a room and study their actions, it was even MORE inhumane to stick needles in someone's arm and cut them open. Donnie shivered with that image.
"Will I be released?" he asked. Amy frowned now.
"It isn't really safe for mutants out in New York..." she said, and Donnie had to agree with that statement. But he had somewhere to go, someone to see. He had something outside.
"Just say yes or no," Donnie told her. "Don't give me any filler or sorry excuses."
Amy frowned apologetically and bit her bottom lip.
"No, you won't," she said. Donnie nodded, feeling hollow. That was that, then. He would never see his brothers again.
He thought about that for just a second. If his brothers weren't in the cage with him, that meant that they were still out there, somewhere, running around New York. Donnie wondered what they were up to now. Were they looking for him? Did they even know he was gone? How long had he been here already? Would Mikey have tried one of those food pellets? Most likely, he would have.
"Enjoy your stay here," Amy said to him. She then turned around and walked away down the path. Donnie hadn't realized that he backed this far away. He could see the pond where he woke up from here.
He heard the kids' laughter from where he was standing, but he couldn't see them anymore. He took this alone time to sit down and stare at the ground, trying to absorb everything he had just been told.
He knew he shouldn't give up this easily, but what was the point in fighting back? The place was swarming with guards armed with tranquilizer guns and tasers. Donnie would know. All the amounts of times he and his brothers had been chasing after a mutant, then watching as that mutant got too close to the building...
Donnie had tried back then to find a way into the building, discovering that that was the easiest part. The impossible part was getting back out again. After hours of studying the place, seeing how many guards were posted in and around the building, the turtle brothers had decided that it was best to stay as far away from the building as possible.
Donnie wished he knew how he had gotten caught. Most likely, a trank was used on him, muddling his memory.
He had no idea how long he had been lying there, but he must have fallen asleep at some point, because next thing he knew, he opened his eyes and there were five pairs staring back at him.
The little pale-skinned turtle had felt proud of himself. The nice woman had asked him to offer the new turtle some food, and if he wasn't hungry, to let her know. He was confused when the new turtle looked scared of the nice lady, and he was scared when he saw the new turtle on the ground. He was only 7 years old, but he knew enough about taking care of others to know that something was wrong with the new turtle.
He crawled towards the new turtle on all fours, since he had no idea how the nice lady was able to use only two of hers. His friends gathered around the bigger turtle, too, and all just stared at him. The pale-skinned turtle watched his friends, curious about what they would do. One of them, the girl, poked the newcomer. The others followed her lead, poking and shaking.
Eventually, the newcomer woke up, making a weird noise that the humans sometimes made when they were sleepy. He stared at all of them.
"Ok?" The pale-skinned turtle asked him. The new turtle shook his head, which the little turtles all recognized as a common word from the humans as 'no'.
"Nice lady scary?" asked the female. The newcomer's eyes closed slightly, then opened again.
"Guess I'm just paranoid..." he answered.
"Pair-noid?" asked the pale turtle. The newcomer smiled, relaxing all the little turtles.
"Yeah, paranoid. It means you're scared of something that isn't scary," he said. The little turtles nodded. That made sense. And that was a fancy word. They liked fancy words. They always made people sound really smart. This bigger turtle must be super smart! Maybe he knew more fancy words?
"What are your names?" asked the bigger turtle. The kids looked at each other in confusion. Names?
One of the twins and the female crawled off in different directions. They came back moments later, the girl holding a pretty flower and the boy holding a stick.
"Name?" they asked the bigger turtle. He stared at them again.
"Do you guys have names?" he asked. The pale turtle shook his head, mimicking the action that the bigger turtle did. The bigger turtle made a frowny face.
"Hmm," he said. The pale-skinned turtle had never heard that one before. He wondered what it meant?
"Name?" asked the girl, offering him the flower.
"You want ME to name you?" asked the bigger turtle. The female smiled at him and nodded. The bigger turtle's eyes opened really wide, making the kids laugh.
"Um, ok," he said. He stared at the flower while the kids watched in silence.
"This is a lotus flower," he said.
"Pretty," said the girl.
"Very pretty," he agreed. He stared at her. "Can I call you Lotus?"
"Lotus! Lotus! Lotus!" she cheered. This made the bigger turtle smile really big. The pale-skinned turtle noticed the hole in his teeth and wondered about it but was scared that it was a "rude question." The humans had warned him about asking "rude questions." They said those made people sad, and he didn't want to make anyone sad. So he didn't ask.
The twin with the weird spot on his face was next, holding onto his stick like it was a teddy. The bigger turtle turned his head to the side, and the little turtles all mimicked the action, having fun with this new turtle. He was really smart and he knew a lot of things!
"It isn't exactly a typical exercise to name a child 'stick'," he said. "So, how about Branch?"
The child squealed happily and hugged his stick tighter, laughing.
"I'll take that as a yes," said the big turtle. He turned around and looked at the final three. "What about you guys? Any preferences?"
While they didn't know what "preferences" were, they understood the question. The other twin crawled away, back to the table, while the dark green turtle reached into his shell to retrieve something. The paler turtle just sat there and watched his friends crawl around happily and waited.
The twin came back holding his favorite T-rex toy in his mouth and making roaring sounds. He showed his prize to the bigger turtle, who smiled at him.
"So, you want to be called Rex?" he asked. The newly named "Rex" smiled at the name and nodded his head so hard the others were afraid it would fly off. The dark green turtle showed the bigger turtle a book they were given. None of them knew what the book said, or what it was about, but they liked the pictures. He flipped the pages to his favorite one, a picture of a big building with people in front of it and the only word the kids could read.
"August?" the big turtle asked, and the kid nodded. The big turtle smiled and turned to look at the pale turtle.
"What about you?" he asked. "Have anything in mind?"
The kid shook his head. He had no idea what he wanted to be called, only what he HAD been called since he could remember.
"Buddy?" he asked. His friends nodded their agreement.
"You want to be called Buddy?" the big turtle asked. The pale turtle nodded. The big turtle smiled.
"Ok then, Buddy," he said. Hearing his new name for the first time made the little turtle giggle. He really liked the big turtle. He was fun, smart, and funny. And he was nice, too.
Lotus yawned really big and curled up on the ground, ready to sleep. The others followed her until they were sleeping in a big pile. Buddy followed them, climbing on top. Without the bigger turtle noticing, he watched him.
The big turtle was smiling at them, but he seemed really sad. He looked at the sky, which was dark now, and let out a big breath. His smile went away while he looked up.
Something was making the new turtle sad, and Buddy had no idea what it could be. Maybe he could find out...
Well, there's chapter one. I think the kids technically count as OCs, but I'm not so sure. But they exist within this story, so that's that. And the reason that act and speak like they're younger will be explained in the next chapter, so please don't harass me about that.
Ok, bye.