Hi, everyone! I'm SO SORRY for being late! I had a REALLY bad case of writer's block...
NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes that I will fix later.
Six months Later...
"Oh, God, please don't let them hurt her!" a blonde woman sobbed as her husband held her.
The NYPD had an elementary school completely surrounded, with a crowd of worried, frantic parents standing behind the barriers. Inside, the children were being held hostage by nine armed members of the Thanos cult, with two of them guarding the front entrance from behind the doors. The school's entire staff, including the principal, were released after over an hour of negotiating, but the cultists absolutely refused to let the students go.
They were all forced into the gym and held at gunpoint by six cultists, while their leader continued to talk on the phone with the negotiator. The members all wore black clothing with purple T's printed on their shirts and three vertical purple lines painted on their chins in honor of the dead Titan whom they deeply admired.
"It doesn't matter whether you pull your pigs back or not," the leader told the negotiator. "Half of these children will meet their destiny."
Wait, the negotiator begged. Wait, please. Just listen. They're just kids. They didn't do anything to deserve this. Let's talk about this-
"No," the leader sternly said. "No more talk. This is the will of Thanos." He then hung up and turned to his comrades. "It's time."
The other six cultists rounded up half of the students and forced them to all sit on the bleachers while the other half was allowed to leave the building and reunite with their parents, who were overwhelming relieved to hold them in their arms again. But the parents of the children who were still inside began to fear the worst and had to be pushed back by the officers from running into the school.
As the frightened students began to cry and hold each other, the leader stepped forward and spoke to them in a deceivingly soft voice. "Don't be scared, children. You'll get to be with Thanos." He then lifted his firearm and aimed it at the children, with his comrades following suit.
But before they could pull the trigger, the lights in the gym suddenly went off and they saw nothing but pitch blackness.
"Hey, what the-?!" "Who's here?!" "What just happened?!"
Amongst the yelling there was some whooshing as well the sound of a blade slicing through something, and less than ten seconds later, the lights went back on.
"Hey, Thanos dudes!" a male voice yelled to them from behind.
They all turned around and Mikey was standing in front of the exit doors with his kusarigama activated and wearing night goggles.
He grinned at the cultists. "Why don't you play with someone your own age?"
"Kill him!" the leader shouted, and they all pointed their large guns at the Turtle. But then the weapons suddenly fell apart and dropped to the floor in pieces.
"Oops," Mikey teased. "Looks like I broke your toys."
But that didn't stop them, as each of them pulled out a dagger and charged at him. Mikey deactivated his blades since he didn't want to kill any of them and used his nunchuck skills to defend himself against their attacks as well as land blows.
As this went on, the lid to the vent in the ceiling sudden popped off and fell to the floor, and to the children's surprise, a raccoon wearing a small grey hoodie and a pair of black shorts jumped out and landed on his feet in front of them.
"It's okay, kids," he smiled kindly at them. "We're gonna get you outta here." He motioned for them to follow him and they all rushed to the exit while Mikey had the cultists distracted.
Meanwhile, while the two remaining members continued to guard the front entrance, Nebula stepped out of the shadows and snuck up behind them. With her supernatural strength, she knocked both of them out with a double neck chop, and right at that moment, Rocket and the children came running down the hall.
The raccoon grinned up at the cyborg. "I thought you said you were gonna slit their throats?"
Nebula shrugged a little. "They're not worth getting my dagger dirty."
She and Rocket then pushed the doors open and all the children ran outside and into the arms of the parents. As soon as the last child reached the bottom step, the duo ran back inside.
The police immediately rushed into the building and found the unconscious guards as well as the other seven cultists who were tied up together in the gym, but the strangers who saved the students had already disappeared.
...
The mysterious vigilantes strike again, the anchorwoman for Channel Six announced. This time they've rescued the students at Wellington Elementary after nine members of the Thanos cult held them hostage for nearly three hours. According to the NYPD, the members were planning to murder half of the children. Thankfully their plans were thwarted by the vigilantes just in the nick of time. For the past few months since our heroes made their first appearance, crime has gone down significantly in New York, and the NYPD has expressed their gratitude for all the help that they've been receiving lately.
...
Once the anchorwoman stopped the announcement, the station's sound technician April grinned to herself.
"Good job, guys."
...
"Whew!" Rocket sighed as he collasped onto his beanie bag in the entertainment center. "What a day."
"Yeah," Mikey grunted as he sat down on the couch and stretched himself.
Nebula had gone into the kitchen to get some drinks and returned with cool soda cans. She tossed one to Rocket and handed Mikey his as she sat down next to him. "These cultists are getting more reckless every day," she muttered in disgust. "Now they're targeting children."
Rocket nodded after he took a sip. "Yeah, and can you believe there are morons out there who actually defend these guys? Last night, some dork on CNN said that it's a 'mostly peaceful religious organization'. It's a crazy world out there." He turned to Mikey. "No wonder you and your family preferred to live underground."
Mikey chuckled softly. "Well, it's not like we had a choice, being mutants and all." Just then his T-phone dinged and he pulled out to read the text message that he just received. His whole face lit up as his eyes went down the screen. "Sweet."
"What is it?" Nebula asked.
"Mondo and Pete just stopped more cult members from hijacking the subway. None of the citizens got hurt."
The cyborg grinned a little. "Hmph. Guess that lizard isn't so useless after all." She took a sip of her soda when she noticed Mikey looking at her. "What?"
Mikey had an amused smile on his face. "Does somebody have a crush?" he teased.
Nebula shot him a cold glare. "Don't be stupid. I just complimented him, that's all."
Rocket chuckled as he got up from his bag. "Well, I'm heading to the lab. That jetpack ain't gonna build itself, ya know."
Since his return, the raccoon had been building and experimenting in Donnie's lab to pass the time and keep himself busy. It was kind of creepy and awkward to work in a dead guy's lab, but Mikey assured him that he was just keeping Donnie's seat warm until they found a way to bring the genius Turtle and everyone else back.
Rocket was about to climb up the stool next to the desk when he picked up a strange sound, like glass cracking. He paused and looked at his surroundings, and when the noise returned, he followed it to a large object in the corner that had been covered with a grey sheet. He never peeked behind that sheet since he started working in the lab; in fact, surprisingly, he never even noticed it before. He grabbed a hold of the sheet and pulled it off...
"HOLY SH**!"
At the sound of Rocket screaming, both Mikey and Nebula rushed into the lab.
"What's wrong?!" Mikey yelled. Then he noticed what Rocket was staring at: a frozen creature in a large canister that was nothing but organs plus a pair of eyes and a mouth. "Oh, yeah, heh," he grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. "I never introduced you guys to Timothy."
Rocket looked up at him incredulously. "'Timothy'?" He pointed to the canister. "You tellin' me that's a person in there?"
Mikey nodded. "He used to be a normal human until he got himself covered in mutagen, then he turned into that. Donnie tried to cure him, but he never did since he got erased by Thanos." He walked up to the canister and looked at the creature sadly. "I can't believe I forgot about him. Sorry, Pulverizer."
He gently touched the glass, but quickly pulled away when the ice began to chip. When he realized what was happening, he started to sweat. "Uh-oh."
"'Uh-oh'?" Rocket repeated, not liking the sound of that. "What does that mean?"
Mikey backed away from the canister to where Rocket stood. "Well, uh, we had to freeze him 'cause he went a little, y'know..." He pointed at his head and made a circle with his finger.
Nebula slowly reached for her dagger. "So what do we do?"
Mikey turned to her alarmed. "Wait! Wait! Don't hurt him! Just...just give me a minute to think!"
"We may not have a minute, kid!" Rocket warned.
And sure enough, less than five seconds later, the ice completely broke apart and Timothy's staticky voice screamed through the speaker as he finally awoke. His eyeballs blinked rapidly as he got a bearing of his surroundings, and when he spotted Mikey, they narrowed angrily and he even growled.
"Heh heh," Mikey chuckled nervously and waved at him. "Hey, dude. Good morning-uh, I mean, evening?"
Nebula leaned in close to Mikey and whispered, "What if he tries to attack?"
"Just chill, okay?" he whispered back. "We don't want to upset him."
"He already looks upset," Rocket said quietly.
"Well, it is kinda my fault that he's this way, so let me talk to him." Mikey cleared his throat and smiled at Timothy as he stepped forward. "Sorry you had to wait so long, Pulverizer. So, uh, how are you feeling?"
Timothy's eyesballs moved around as he searched for someone. Where's Donnie? he asked.
The smile on Mikey's face dropped. "Um, Donnie's...well, he's gone."
Uh? Timothy looked back at Mikey surprised.
"Yeah, and so is Leo. Raph doesn't live here anymore, so it's just me now." He gestured to Nebula and Rocket behind him. "Me and my new friends, Rocket and Nebula." He glanced back at them and said quietly, "C'mon, guys, quit staring. Say 'hi'."
Rocket reluctantly waved his paw. "Hey."
Nebula just gave the deformed monster a slight nod.
But Timothy didn't seem interested and looked around frantically. How long...?
Mikey understood the question and gulped before he answered, "It's been, I think...six years since we froze you."
SIX?! This greatly upset the monster and he started to wiggle around in the container, making it shake. SIX YEARS?! he roared. WHY?! WHY SIX YEARS?!
"Timothy! Dude! Dude!" Mikey raised his hands. "Calm down, okay?"
You said Donnie gone! Who cure me now?! Stuck like this forever! Timothy lowered his gaze in sadness. Forever...
Mikey moved in a little closer. "Hey, come on, Pulverizer," he said softly. "Don't give up hope. Yeah, Donnie's gone, but I know some people who can help you."
"You do?" Rocket spoke up.
The Turtle turned to the raccoon. "Well, duh! The Avengers, remember?"
Timothy raised his gaze at the mention of that name. Aven...gers?
"Yeah!" Mikey smiled big at him. "I'm totally friends with those guys now! I'll just ask them to find a cure for you!"
But Rocket wasn't as confident. "Uh, I dunno, Mike. You really think they could cure him? I mean, he's just a bunch a guts in a j-" Before he could finish his sentence, Nebula covered his mouth with her hand. When he looked up at her confused, the cyborg shook her head.
Mikey silently thanked her with a nod before he turned back to Timothy. "Don't listen to Rocket. He's always been too pessimistic. But I promise we'll get you cured, okay?"
Timothy didn't seem totally convinced and there was some doubt in his eyes. Donnie promised, too.
"Well," Mikey touched the glass again, "we won't fail you again this time. We're getting you out of that canister, no matter what." He patted the glass twice before he walked back to his friends. "Guys, let's head back to the living room," he whispered.
Timothy watched through the glass as they all walked out of the lab, and then his stomach started to growl from hunger. He thought about calling for Mikey, then he spotted something familiar on the desk: three test tubes filled with mutagen.
The urge to cosume the glowing ooze immediately took over, and he willed the canister to open up at the bottom. His freakishly long mouth slipped through the opening and reached for the tubes. His lips closed down on the first tube and he lifted it so that he could swallow its contents. At the sweet taste, his mind became blank and he quickly consumed the other two.
Like before, he formed two massive mutagen arms that burst through both sides of the cannister. But he was tired of being confined inside a giant jar. He needed to be free now.
He raised both fists and began to beat on the glass.
...
Meanwhile, in the living room, Mikey, Nebula, and Rocket argued over what should be done with Timothy.
"Come on, guys!" Mikey said. "I'm sure Dr. Banner or Mr. Stark will think of something! We can't just give up on him!"
"Kid, I feel you," Rocket softly told him, "but look at him. It's impossible to make him completely normal again, unless you have magical, godlike powers, which none of us do. You can't give him false hopes."
"But we haven't even tried my idea yet!"
"There is a third option," Nebula said, prompting the others to look at her. "We could just put him out of his misery."
"WHAT?!" Mikey yelled.
Even Rocket was shocked. "Sheesh, that's kinda harsh, even for you."
"It would be the merciful thing to do," she explained. "You can't expect anyone to live like that. I would want you two to do the same for me."
"Nebula, you're starting to sound like your Dad!" Mikey snapped.
The cyborg flinched. She wanted to punch the Turtle for comparing her to Thanos, but deep down, she knew that he was right.
"First I let Pulverizer turn into a monster," Mikey glanced down at the floor in shame. "Then I completely forget about him and leave him in here to collect dust." He looked back up at Nebula and Rocket. "I can't fail him again, guys. I just can't."
Rocket sighed. "Alright. We'll try your idea, even though the chances are-"
A loud crashing sound from inside the lab caused them to all jump.
"What the f-?!" Rocket shouted. "What was that?!"
Mikey dashed toward the lab and almost made it to the entrance, but then a huge hand made of mutagen punched the floor and missed him by couple of inches. What crawled into the living room looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
Timothy had not one, but three pairs of arms that served as his legs and his body was stretched out and more slender, like a centipede's. His eyes wiggled out like a snail's, and although he still had his lips, the lower half of his front opened up into a second massive mouth. And he was twice the size he was before.
Mikey backed away in fear, his eyes as wide as saucers. "Timothy..."
"Well, this ain't good," Rocket muttered before he ran to the coffee table where his large gun lay.
But Timothy stretched out one of his arms and brought his fist down on the table, smashing it. He also absorbed the gun and it melted in his grasp.
"Aw, come on!" Rocket yelled in annoyance. "It took me a week to make that gun!"
The mutagen monster then crawled up the walls and onto the ceiling. He briefly hissed at them before he made his way to the lair's exit, drops of ooze falling off his body and onto the floor as he did. He disappeared into the dark tunnels, leaving the stunned trio in the living room.
"Okay, that wasn't creepy at all," Rocket mumbled.
"We have to stop him before reaches the surface," Nebula said urgently.
"Okay, but we can't hurt him," Mikey insisted. "It's not his fault. The mutagen is making him crazy."
"You sure he wasn't crazy before?" Rocket dryly asked.
...
For the next hour, the three friends followed the trail of ooze down the dark tunnels. Rocket led the way with a large flashlight of his own design, and at some point, he spotted something on the floor and froze.
"Hold it," he whispered to Mikey and Nebula. He slowly moved toward the object, which was covered in mutagen. He carefully picked it up and wiped the ooze away, and his brown eyes widened in shock. "Holy crap," he muttered.
"What?" Mikey walked up to him. "What is it?"
Rocket showed the Turtle what he carried in his paws. "This is a liver."
Mikey's face became drained of color. "Liver?"
"Yep," the raccoon nodded. "Big enough to be a human's, so I'm pretty sure it belonged to your freakish friend."
"So he's falling apart?" Nebula asked.
"Looks like it. Apparently his body is unstable and he can't survive long out of that canister of his."
"Then we don't have much time!" Mikey frantically said. "We gotta find him before he gets out of the tunnels!"
"He's already out. See?" Rocket shined his light on one of the manhole ladders, which had bits of mutagen on each step.
...
A woman screamed in horror as she and a few other civilians fled down the street.
The mutagen centipede crawled toward a hot dog stand and scared away the vendor. He opened up his second mouth and gobbled up the whole stand, which completely disintegrated in his blob of a body.
A police car came screeching down the street and two cops hopped out, pointing their guns at the creature.
"Hold it right there!" one of them shouted. "Don't move!"
Timothy glared at them unfazed before he let out a ferocious roar. The startled cops began shooting, but the bullets were merely absorbed and disintegrated by Timothy's body.
The second cop then fired his tazer and the electric shock did have an effect on Timothy, but to him, it merely felt like a bee sting and did not stop him from crawling toward them. They both retreated as the monster smashed their car with his fists.
...
Mikey, Rocket, and Nebula all climbed out of the manhole and could hear the sounds of people screaming and cars smashing nearby.
"Well, at least he's not far," Rocket said.
Lying in a pile of ooze a couple of feet from them was another human organ, this time a spleen.
Mikey's heart began to beat fast and cold sweat formed on his brow. They were running out of time.
...
Timothy crawled across the street toward a cafe, where unsuspecting citizens were enjoying their desserts and coffee. As soon as he pressed his palms against the window, though, they finally noticed him and ran out of the small restaurant in terror. He shattered the glass and used his regular mouth to gobble up the cupcakes and pieces of pie that had been left on the tables.
"Yo, Pulverizer!"
At the sound of Mikey's voice, the monster narrowed his eyes in rage and twirled around. The Turtle and his two friends stood at the other side of the street across from him.
"Timothy, you gotta come back to the lair!" Mikey pleaded.
The mutagen centipede just hissed at him venomously.
"He's not listening," Rocket warned Mikey.
But the Turtle ignored him and pulled out the spleen that he found. He held it up for Timothy to see. "Dude, you're falling apart! Literally!"
At the sight of his organ in Mikey's hand, Timothy let out a raspy gasp...right before all of his intenstines came falling out and landed on the sidewalk. He looked down at the mess in horror and realized that Mikey was telling the truth.
"Timothy, get over here!" Mikey shouted. "Hurry!"
Timothy started to scurry across the street, but as he moved, more and more of his organs fell out and his blob-like body began to shrink. The only part of him that made it to the other side was his brain, which rolled to Mikey's feet in a ball of ooze.
"Eeeuck!" Rocket's nose wrinkled in disgust.
"I know it's gross, guys," Mikey picked up the brain, "but we gotta gather up the rest of his-"
In the blink of an eye, a box truck ran over the remaining organs, smushing them completely.
"Oh, sh**," Rocket cursed under his breath as he covered his mouth.
Even Nebula, who spent most of her life facing the horrors of war, had to avert her gaze.
Mikey couldn't believe what he had just seen. This all had to be a bad dream. He looked back down at the ball of mutagen in his trembling hands. Inside the brain pulsated, indicating that it was still alive.
But for how long?