April paced around Draxum's apartment, trying to not distract the mutant and yokai, but keeping them in her sights and listening distance. She needed to make sure that Mikey didn't try to take things too far again, and that Drax didn't go overboard with the mystic magic stuff.
Casey was sitting on the couch. April had lent him her phone to keep him distracted, or else he might start to offer his opinion on mystic magic, and he knew even less about mysticism than April did. Considering Casey hadn't seen a problem with Mikey beginning to disintegrate right before their eyes, April wasn't going to be quick to let him voice his opinions as far as Mikey's magic went.
April felt uneasy and like she needed to get some air and some space. She needed a few minutes of normalcy so she could wrap her head around this magical and mutant mess, and then she could tackle these problems head on.
She couldn't leave though. After what April had seen and heard, she wasn't going to let Mikey out of her sights. The turtle frequently lost focus and could sometimes forget vital steps. April considered it her job to listen to all of Draxum's instructions so she could know and understand them by heart. If she understood what Mikey needed to do and how to keep him safe, then she could make sure that he didn't take things too far again.
"Mystic powers are the inherit magical abilities that lie dormant in all yokai and mutants." Draxum said. "We all have the potential for magic in our genetics, but for most yokai that potential remains locked and untapped, and it goes to waste." Draxum clenched his fist, making it glow a bright purple. He grew one of those freaky vines of his from the floorboards.
April had to bite down her instinctive response of telling Draxum off for using mystical powers. She had brought Mikey here for the purpose of learning about these powers. It wouldn't really be fair to ask Draxum to teach about magic when he wasn't allowed to use magic. Just this once, April would allow an exception.
"You've found your potential, which opens up a lot of possibilities, but magic isn't a miracle cure for whatever ails your brothers." Draxum said. They had given him a very brief explanation as to what Mikey had already accomplished with his powers, what he was trying to do with them now, and why.
"But Casey said that my future self was able to heal no problem." Mikey whined.
"You are younger than your future self." Draxum said. "Just like with any other power and ability, mysticism needs practice and work. You must start small, and slowly work up to more advanced techniques."
"But I was able to open a portal into another dimension!" Mikey said. "I can do big things!"
"By going too far." Draxum shouted. "Mystical powers rely equally on two different elements. The ability to achieve one's goal, and the will to do so. If somebody has powerful magic, but they don't have the will to do anything with it, then they may easily lose control of their powers. On the other hand, if somebody has the will to achieve something, but they lack the power, they may try to force their abilities past the point that they are capable of. Mystical powers are connected to one's life energy. Their soul, if you will. If you push your powers too far your mystical ability may burn out, and your soul and life may follow if it's serious enough."
"I…but I didn't die." Mikey said. He didn't sound like he was disagreeing just to be contrary, he was just confused and trying to understand. "Maybe it started going too far, but it wasn't that bad."
"From what you told me, I suspect that the only reason it didn't go that far was because your brothers were there along with you." Draxum said. "Sometimes under extreme circumstances, or with a lot of practice, yokai can combine their powers. But it's not something you should count on."
April felt her chest tighten and she thought she saw Mikey pale slightly. Was Draxum saying that Mikey probably would have died if Raph and Donnie hadn't accidentally helped him with the mystic magic? April felt like she was going to be sick. Even Casey looked unnerved.
April raised her hand and immediately felt like a fool. Lesson or not, this wasn't school. She didn't need to ask for permission to say what was on her mind. She quickly lowered her arm and held it behind her back, as though to hide that she had raised it in the first place.
"Okay, quick question." April said. "If someone becomes a mystic master, would that life-draining golden disintegration thing still happen? Because somebody seems to think that this kind of thing is normal." She glared at Casey.
"There's no such thing as a mystic master." Draxum scoffed. "The closest you can get is to master a specific line of mysticism. For me, it's life." Draxum looked at his mystic vine, a somewhat fond look in his eyes. He was really passionate about this mystical stuff. "My vines, my mutations, they're both made from a combination of my mystical powers and my knowledge of science." Well, now he was just sounding like Donnie.
"But I've seen you do other mystic stuff." Mikey said.
"Yes, I can use my mystic powers to accomplish basic things, but I would be a fool to try to do something as ridiculous as mind-control or telepathy." Draxum said. "As useful as those skills might have been, they would have been too draining for me."
Draxum gave Casey a stern look. "So no, the draining of life is far from normal, and should not be encouraged."
Mikey was quiet for a long moment before he too looked at Casey.
"Have you seen me take my magic too far?" Mikey asked quietly. "Did I get hurt?"
Casey looked pained. "...You didn't have a choice. The Kraang needed to be stopped, and there was no other way. I-I needed to be sent to the past."
"Time travel is complicated." Draxum said. "Especially that much time and that precise a destination. If this other version of Michelangelo worked alone, he would have lost himself, am I correct?"
Casey swallowed thickly before he slowly nodded. Draxum's eyes flashed dangerously and Mikey looked like he was going to faint. April didn't wait to see how either of them reacted. She took action first. She stormed up to Casey, grabbed the front of his shirt, and pulled him up to his feet.
"You mean to tell me that you saw your Mikey lose himself to his mystical powers, and you didn't think there was any problem with my Mikey blindly following in his footsteps?" New friend or not, April was seconds away from knocking this punk's lights out.
"I didn't know!" Casey said. "I didn't understand mystic powers. He was the master, not me!" April knew he was probably telling the truth, but she didn't forgive that. Mikey could have hurt himself, and the only person who might have known that something was wrong would have been completely oblivious, and that thought was terrifying. April was about to teach Casey a lesson, and then force him to listen to Draxum's mystic lessons, because clearly he needed to learn the basics too, when she heard her phone ring.
April gave Casey a warning look before she snatched her phone out of his hands. She answered the phone and immediately heard the familiar sound of shouting turtles.
"Guys, guys, I'm on the phone." Leo's voice said. The shouting didn't quiet and he sighed. "Hey, April, you wouldn't happen to know where Mikey is, would you? Raph's kinda starting to freak out over here."
"Donnie's freaking out too." April heard Raph's voice over the phone.
"Yes, I am, because, just in case you somehow forgot, you're half blind!" Donnie shouted. To people who didn't know him they would just think that Donnie was cold and impatient, but April recognized that this was Donnie's emotional tone, when he was starting to lose his grip on control. He was not coping well right now. None of them were, and April was out of her depth. She was their friend. She was supposed to be able to help them, but this was too much for her.
Draxum held a hand out to April. "Let me talk to him."
April didn't know what Draxum would be able to do when he barely seemed to care about Mikey's brothers, but she found herself handing the phone over anyways. Her head was pounding, she was overwhelmed, and she felt like anything she came up with was just going to make things worse. Draxum had been able to help Mikey when April couldn't. Maybe it was dumb to trust him with the others, but she didn't know what else to do.
Draxum took the phone with one hand and with his other hand he pointed at Mikey. "You! I want you to meditate and feel your mystic power. Don't even think about doing anything with it. I only want you to familiarize yourself with the feeling."
Mikey looked dubious, but he did as he was told. Draxum watched him carefully for a long moment before he turned his attention to the phone in his hands. "As for you, tell me the nature of your problems or whatever they are." April heard Leo protest on the other line. Draxum looked very unimpressed.
"Why should you tell me anything? I'll tell you why." Draxum said sternly in a tone that was hard to argue against, even though it was so easy to disagree with. "Your younger brother has come running to me for assistance because none of you know how to deal with the most basic of problems. Instead, you idiots all tried to fix things on your own, and that nearly made Michelangelo accidentally mystic himself out of existence."
"What?!" April could hear Leo's screech from here.
"Calm down, he's fine." Draxum said dismissively. "But only because I'm not allowing him to figure this out on his own. This is beyond his capabilities. He needs assistance, and considering he was only trying to do more than he should with his powers for the sake of you three, I believe he's only going to accept that help if you're given the help you need as well."
Leo's response was too quiet for April to hear, but Draxum's eye roll told her all she needed to know. "Oh, you're fine, are you? You don't need any help? Well, your brother disagrees, and he will continue to disagree until you're better, so unless you want him to continue to act just as much of a fool as you are, I suggest you stop trying to play the hero and get some help." Draxum threw the phone to April, making her fumble to try to catch it because she could not afford to get a replacement right now.
April glared at Draxum, but he was ignoring her. His attention was back to Mikey as he was walking him through how to meditate on his mystic powers, which was apparently different from the way that ninjas meditated.
"Hey, Leo." April said tiredly.
"Is Mikey okay?" Leo asked.
April wanted to say that he was fine, but she hadn't forgotten Mikey's freak out because he'd thought that he and his brothers were okay, and the realization that they weren't seemed to break something inside of him. Clearly pretending that things were fine when they weren't wasn't doing any of them any favors.
"Leo, none of us are okay." April said. "He's alive, and he's not hurt, but he's freaking out. You guys really scared him, and he scared me."
"I'm sorry." Leo said quietly. That just made April feel worse.
"You don't have to apologize for not being okay." April said. "But Draxum's right. You guys need help."
"Who are we supposed to get help from?" Leo asked. Normally April would think of a therapist, but the whole turtle situation complicated things.
"I don't know. Maybe there's a mutated therapist who has been lying low this whole time." April looked at Draxum.
"The best mystic healer in the Hidden City owes me a favor." Draxum said without looking at her. "They can help heal your minds and bodies."
"So this guy's both a therapist and a doctor?" April didn't buy it.
"Among yokai, problems of the mind affect the body, and physical ailments can harm the mind, so healers often specialize in treating both." Draxum said. "It's much more efficient than the crude method that humans have." There it was. April had been wondering when Draxum's way of looking down on humans would work itself into the conversation.
Mikey smiled. "We're going to the Hidden City again?"
"You're going to the Hidden City." Draxum said. "This time it would probably be better if I remained here."
Mikey pouted, but he knew just as well as the rest of them that going to the Hidden City was dangerous and tricky enough as it was. Going with a fugitive was just opening the door wide open for trouble to come waltzing in.
"Fine." Mikey said quietly. "But afterward we're having a movie night at your place. I'm going to show you how to make pizza, and you're going to love it." April didn't know how Mikey made a fun night sound like a threat, but he managed it.
"You're not having a movie night without me!" Leo said. "And as the leader I get to choose what we watch."
"I thought you didn't want to be the leader anymore." April smirked slightly.
"That's just a technicality." Leo said. "And technically, I'm still a leader until Raph gets over the whole eye thing."
"Eye thing?!" April could hear both Raph and Donnie shout furiously from the other line.
"Oh, I'm sorry that my being blind is such an inconvenience for you." Raph said.
"Half blind." Leo said. "And your tone says that you're being sarcastic, but we both know that you really do think that the worst part of this whole thing is that you feel like you're a burden and inconvenience on us, and that's why this family is going to therapy." Leo's tone made it sound like going to the healer in the Hidden City had been his idea, when they all knew that they were going on Draxum's insistence.
April would usually push Leo back in his place and force some humility in his face, but right now his arrogance wasn't the problem, it was his uncertainty and self-consciousness. Acting proud and confident would probably do him some good right now.
"I'll make sure Mikey gets home before dawn." April said. "We'll even bring some cheesecake." Because who could say no to some great New York style cheesecake? "Just no more fighting over who is the most messed up, okay? You're all great. You're all absolute messes. You're all going to be okay eventually, but it's okay if you're not right now, or if it takes awhile to get there."
"We're not fighting anymore." Leo said. "Though Raph's really not happy that we dragged him into talking to Dad. And Dad's not happy that he was keeping this a secret from us."
"I'm not happy that any of you were keeping any of these secrets from me." April said sternly. "We're a family. Families don't keep things like that from each other. Next time, talk to me, or else I'll whoop all of your butts into next week."
Leo laughed, knowing that even though she was just kidding around she was also completely serious. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."
"Love you, guys." April said as cheerfully as she could manage. She hung up and sat on the couch, suddenly feeling more relaxed than she had just ten minutes ago. Nothing was completely fixed, but they had a plan to fix things, and the guys had calmed down. It was better, and after everything that happened that was about as much as they could hope for right now.