This one is just kinda short n' silly. But I think we could possibly use that after last chapter.

The turtles stared in confusion at the scene before them. When they had followed the mutant tracker to the original home of Vic "Spiderbytes" NoLastName, they had gone in expecting a fight from the ill-tempered man. Instead as they (read: Raph) kicked in the door and barged into the apartment, they were immediately shushed by the large spider man sitting attentively in front of his tv.

"Keep it down, frogs, will ya? This is an important race for me!" the mutant barely even looked away from the television as he said this, instead he started to shake his fists, upper appendages curling anxiously as he muttered to the screen, "C'mon porker, I know you can beat X. Get that underdog victory and make me a ton of money!"

"Ooookay, I'm not the only one totally confused right now, right?" asked Mikey carefully.

His brothers all shook their heads, equally puzzled at what the heck was going on. Soon enough, Raph stomped in front of the tv and brought himself face to face with the larger mutant, doing his best to stare him down despite the fact it was hard to know where to stare to intimidate someone when they had six eyes. But ninjas weren't quitters so Raph did his best anyway. "Hey,bug breath, we're here to give you a cure you don't deserve so you can be a terrible human instead of a terrible mutant." Rather than listening, the spider's eyes looked over and around Raph to keep track of the events of the tv. The turtle moved to block his line of sight again, glare harshening, "Hey, you got webs in your ears? We've got a retromutagen. You wanna look away from the idiot box for two seconds maybe? It's gonna rot what little brains you have left."

"Raph, we didn't have to fight the guy, do you really have to keep antagonizing him?" Leo groaned.

Raph gave a wide sarcastic shrug.

"I think he's just disappointed he didn't get to punch anything," suggested Mikey with a grin.

"Except the door," muttered Donnie as his two cents.

"Hey!" shouted Spiderbytes, finally turning slightly away from the television set (though his upper eyes continued to linger on the screen), "What part of 'shhh' don't you frogs get?! What were ya, raised in the sewers?"

"Well actually-" started Mikey before being completely cut off by Raph.

"Look do you want the freaking retromutagen or not!" retorted the hot tempered turtle.

"Hard pass, goodbye," harshly returned the taller mutant, waving the turtles away.

"Wait, what?" replied Raph, echoing his brothers' thoughts with wide eyes. That…had been an unexpected response. The turtles all traded questioning glances.

"But, Vic," hesitantly offered Donnie, being sure to call the once-human by his actual name, "This retromutagen will make you human again."

"Whatever," the spider scoffed. When nothing but heavy confused silence followed, he groaned, finally pulling fully away from the tv to face the group of ninja turtles. "Look, before, I was a bald fat nobody with no money."

"Well, you got that part right," muttered Raph, who was quickly shot down by glares from everyone but his youngest brother. He held up his hands in half-hearted surrender then sarcastically gestured for the spider mutant to continue.

"Anyway," Vic carried on, "you know how much I'm making in the underground mutant community now? And what's a landlord gonna do, kick me out?" He gave a sibilant snort at the idea, and added self-importantly, pointing roughly towards the floor to accentuate his words, "S'long as I got the rent, I get the room, who the hell cares what I look like? And if he refuses me I got plenty a' other ways to get a place to crash."

The turtles stared, dumbfounded. Did this guy really care about money more than being a mutant? And after he nearly killed them all for changing him into one in the first place? Some people.

Waving the turtles away, the giant spider added, "I got cable, I got fans, hell, I have a reputation , frogs.I'm good where I'm at. So why don't you take your freaky jello and crawl back to your pond, huh? Leave me alone, I got a race to bet on." With that, the spider turned to watching his tv (which was playing some kind of obstacle course…game show? With mutants as the contestants, which, ok, that looked kind of shady), and talked to them no more.

Struck uncharacteristically speechless at the greedy man's decision, Raph just threw his hands in the air and stomped out of the door the way that he came, Mikey following right after.

Donnie looked between the spider mutant and the container of retromutagen a few times, before shrugging in confusion and stowing the important ooze away. Like he had said, whether someone would be "cured" or not was their decision. And, honestly, this saved retromutagen which was something he was a bit grateful for. He turned towards the door to follow his brothers out, but paused a moment to watch the "race" that was happening on tv that Spiderbytes was apparently now making a living off of betting on. He cringed as something on screen exploded and the spider mutant cheered. Lingering under the door frame, the purple banded turtle turned to his older brother. "Should we do something about this underground mutant sports ring?" Donnie asked, not sure if that was considered a threat or not.

"Ummmm," replied Leo, still processing the whole encounter. Shaking his head he said, "Nah, I'm sure it's…fine."

"Can you guys stop lingering with bug butt!" shouted Raph from the roof outside, "I wanna just get home already!"

"Yeah, coming!" called Leo in return, patting Donnie on the shoulder reassuringly before leaving the apartment.

Donnie took one last look at the befuddling apartment, tv, and occupant, then shook his head and followed his brothers out. He jogged to catch up with his family who were already on the roof ahead, unable to help himself from clarifying, "Spiders are arachnids, not bugs, Raph,"

"Whatever," the older brother huffed, "I literally could not care less."

Another mutant found and (sort of) dealt with, the turtles turned around and once again returned home.

Notes:

Yeah, I let Xever keep his underground gambling ring. The episode is trash and the way they portray it is cartoonish and ridiculous, but other than that it's something I can see Xever doing, honestly. And, heck, I'll let him televise it, why not?

It was a silly thought I had that Vic would actually be fine staying a mutant, and I just went with it. I had fun writing it so eh. Hope you enjoyed, kudos, comments, etc are always really appreciated, see you next chapter where significantly more sad times will probably await.