TMNT 2003: I'm Sorry I'm Not Vital
After Donnie suffers a secondary mutation from Bishop's viral outbreak, Raph loses control of himself and pins all the blame on Mikey, making him feel extremely low and not wanted in the family. Will Raph see the error of his ways before Mikey is lost to everyone forever?
An alternate storyline in the episodes 'Good Genes Part 1 and Part 2', and also the second episode of my 'I'm Sorry' story series.
I do not own TMNT 2003.
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Chapter 1-Tensions and Emotions Rise
It all started over a few hours ago back at the Hamato family's lair, sometime after Donnie was captured and kept under supervision after his secondary mutation.
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Flashback…
Raph was able to pull Mikey out of Donnie's grip after the double-mutated turtle grabbed his little brother's foot and tried to eat him. They had tumbled to the ground during the process, but after regaining his composure, Raph stood back up and looked at Mikey with a ticked-off expression on his face.
"What da shell were ya thinkin', Mikey!?" Raph yelled at Mikey angrily.
"I-I was just trying to give him something to eat, Raph! He hasn't eaten for ages!" Mikey explained himself defensively.
"Ya stupid IDIOT! Donnie was more interested in eatin' yer leg off than eatin' a bowl of cereal!" Raph scolded as he shoved Mikey in anger.
"I-I thought that it would help bring him round, snap him out of it, you know…!" Mikey countered in a desperate tone.
"Well, it didn't! I should've just let ya get yer foot eaten cos of how idiotic and useless yer already are! It's also cos of you dat Donnie's like dis, and ya don't even care!" Raph fired back.
"Raph!" Leo scolded.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK I WANTED THIS, RAPH!?" Mikey shouted out in anger and frustration, shocking and surprising the others, before he spoke again.
"Every minute I take just looking at him in that container, I never stop thinking about why I didn't do anything to stop him from getting infected! And for your information, I do care about Donnie; I never wanted this to happen to him, and you know that!"
"You were da fastest out of all of us! Ya could've ran and pushed him away from dat freak, but ya didn't! Instead, ya just stood there like a scaredy little coward and let dat thing hurt and infect Donnie!" Raph said accusingly.
"I didn't know what was gonna happen, Raph! What was I supposed to do!?" Mikey said defensively.
"Course ya don't, cos yer da stupidest one out of dis family! I don't know why I'm even related ta ya!" Raph insulted cruelly.
"Raph!" "Raphael!" Leo and Master Splinter scolded in unison.
"I-I…-" Mikey tried to say something to counter Raph's words, but he was too stunned to do so. In fact, he didn't get a chance to because Raph cut him off with some words that would definitely destroy him.
"Ya know what!? Get outta my sight, Mikey! I'm done with ya! Yer no brother of mine anymore! And if Donnie doesn't make it out of dis alive, it'll be ALL YER FAULT!"
That was it. Mikey could no longer stand in front of Raph and take any more of his cruelty. He swiftly turned away and made a run towards his room.
"Mikey!" "Michelangelo!" Leo, Master Splinter, and Leatherhead called out to try and stop him from running, but it was no use; the poor turtle kept on running until he reached his bedroom and shut the door hard.
After taking a moment to process what just happened a moment ago, Leo turned towards Raph and then…
SLAP!
He angrily slapped him hard on the cheek, causing Raph to step back a couple of times.
"OOWW! What da shell was dat for!?" Raph cried out in a ticked off tone.
"For being an ignorant and selfish hothead! Do you really think that disowning Mikey as your brother and blaming him for the outbreak will help get Donnie back to normal any faster!?" Leo scolded furiously.
"…" Raph didn't say anything; he was still too angry at Mikey.
"My sons, now is not the time to be arguing with one another! We must focus on saving Donatello!" Master Splinter jumped in to prevent the argument from getting worse.
"Don't worry, Master Splinter; I haven't forgotten about that. In fact, I've already made up my mind on what we need to do…" Leo reassured his sensei and father-figure.
"What's that, Leonardo?" Leatherhead asked.
"…I know you won't like it, but we're going to travel to Area 51 and confront Bishop to give us the cure…" Leo answered with a sigh.
And Leo was right; the moment he finished his sentence, the others were looking at him as if he had just lost his mind. However, they all knew that there were no other options, so they reluctantly agreed with Leo's plan and begun making preparations for the trip ahead.
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End of flashback…
This all led to the present time; the Hamato family and Leatherhead were flying in the Turtle Copter, with a contained and mutated Donnie on board, towards Agent Bishop's base at Area 51 to get the cure from him.
It took Leo and Master Splinter over 5 minutes to calm Mikey down and encourage him to leave his room and join the group in getting the cure from Bishop.
The youngest turtle was still sitting in a crouched position ever since the Turtle Copter first took flight, and he was looking at Donnie with a face full of guilt and heartbreak.
'I wish I could trade places with you, bro…' He told his brother in thought before tears fell down his face.
Just then, the double-mutated turtle looked straight ahead at Mikey and his face changed from angry to confused and then to sad within a matter of minutes.
"D-Donnie…?" Mikey rasped before he slowly stood up and walked cautiously towards the contained brother.
Raph saw this and scowled at him due to thinking that Mikey might disturb or anger Donnie again. He was about to walk over to him and stop him before he felt an arm block his way, which belonged to Leo.
"Wait…" Leo commanded firmly before he and Raph looked back at Mikey and continued watching from a distance.
Mikey was now a few inches away from the containment unit. He looked into Donnie's eyes, which were still red but calm and looked as if they showed concern for the youngest turtle, before he allowed more tears to fall.
He wanted to say something to him, tell him that everything would be ok. However, he could barely get a single word out of his mouth because, right now, the raw emotions within him were close to pouring out and exploding if he tried to speak.
So, instead, Mikey slowly raised a hand and gently placed it against the clear surface of the containment unit. Shortly after doing that, he and the others watched in shock and awe when Donnie did the same and aligned his large hand with Mikey's hand whilst softening his eyes even more.
That did it for Mikey; seeing his brother responding to him made his emotions go into overload and tears fell down his face like a waterfall.
"I-I'm so sorry, bro…T-This is all my fault…" He whispered with a sob before he slowly lowered himself down to his knees, covered his eyes with his spare hand, and broke down.
"Doesn't care, huh?" Leo said to Raph in a confronting manner.
"…" Raph turned away grumpily and didn't reply to Leo's words.
Leo then watched as Master Splinter walked over to Mikey and placed a comforting hand on his shell-covered back.
"Calm yourself, my son…I know it is hard, but you must remain strong for your brother…he needs you to stay in control of your emotions in order to save him…" He said soothingly whilst rubbing his son's back.
"I-I-I know, Sensei…B-But I don't know…what to do…I-I'm useless…!" Mikey hiccupped without looking at his sensei.
"No, you are not, Michelangelo…you are an important part of this family…!" Master Splinter countered firmly but softly.
"H-How can I be…? I-I've got nothing to prove to you that I am…!" Mikey said in denial.
Leo immediately walked over to Mikey after firmly telling Raph to stay put and remain quiet. He then knelt down next to his youngest brother on his other side, placed a hand on his other shoulder, and spoke.
"Mikey, you're not useless and we will always need you because you keep us strong and brighten our way through the darkness with your heart of light. Besides, we're all feeling helpless right now, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing we can do for our brother…"
Mikey looked up at Leo in slight surprise when he heard those words, despite tears still falling down his face and his lips were quivering.
"And don't worry; we'll do whatever it takes to save Donnie…so, stay strong until then, ok?" Leo then said a bit more confidently.
"Y-Yeah…" Mikey replied shakily with a small nod as he cleaned his face up.
"We have arrived, my friends…" Leatherhead suddenly announced.
"Alright, everyone, get ready; we don't know what we might face as soon as we face Bishop…" Leo told his family in a more serious tone.
The others nodded to say that they were ready to face whatever was coming their way once they leave the Turtle Copter. As the group opened the door and started making their way out with Donnie kept close to them, Mikey looked at his immediate older brother one more time.
'No matter what it takes, bro…I will make things right again…' Mikey thought, his heart now filled with determination to save his immediate older brother.
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Author's notes:
Hi everyone!
Sorry it's been a while since I've done any updates on my other stories that are in progress; things have been quite busy on my end so I haven't had much time to do a lot of story-writing at the moment.
I've got big news; I have decided to make my first ever TMNT 2003 fanfic story series called 'I'm Sorry', and they're all based on Mikey due to being my favourite character in the TV series. It will involve roughly around 4 stories in total and they will be released at random, so it won't be the first story that will be released (called 'I'm Sorry I'm Not The Same') due to not been anywhere near written up at the minute cos I'm currently getting it together in my head.
Anyway, the third episode will be the first one to be released at random, and the rest of its chapters are being currently written up right now.
I hope you like it ;)