I apologize in advance for the awkwardness that this fic will contain. Takes place right after the end of "Mikey Gets Shell-acne".
After yet another humiliating defeat against the turtles; Baxtar Stockman, Fishface, and the newly christened Rahzar followed the temporarily-in-charge Karai back to the Foot headquarters, followed by the smell of burnt clothes, singed fur, fried fish and failure. Despite the humiliating defeat, the pain from electrocution, and the unpleasant smell of burnt fur, Bradford was in a relatively good mood. At least, a better mood than he had been in for the past several weeks. Although one would expect a double mutation to be worse than mutation in the first place, for Bradford it was a drastic improvement. He was less clumsy, more agile, far more threatening...and, best of all, he had finally gotten rid of the bane of his existence that had been his tail. It wasn't as good as being human again would have been, but it was a nice change, for sure. The newly named Rahzar smiled to himself from these musings as he, Xever and Stinkman walked into the Foot HQ. He realized with a mild shock that he actually felt pretty good about himself.
Xever noticed this look, and felt a surge of anger and jealously rise in him. Neither of them had been turned back human, despite the high hopes of the evening, and Bradford was smiling? Bradford had always been too proud for his own good, and now, thought Xever, since his double mutation he was almost acting as if they weren't both freaks, and it burned Xever up. Xever opened his mouth to yell something spiteful at him, but stopped when he realized that Bradford would just yell back something similar, and he wouldn't really achieve anything. No, he needed to wipe that smile off of Bradford's face, he needed to attack his pride. Focusing on his plan of attack, it didn't take Xever very long to think of a way. Grinning to himself, Xever put his plan into action. "Good mood, Bradford?" he asked casually, as if he were just a mildly curious friend.
"Yeah, what's it to you?" replied Bradford suspiciously, not trusting the strange gleam that was in Xever's yellow eyes, or his oh-so casual question.
Xever gave a nonchalant shrug, and replied with a barely contained smile, "Oh, nothing. I just thought that it would bother you more, you know" he shrugged again, "being completely naked now." Then he couldn't help himself and smirked as Bradford's face fell, obviously his comment had hit its mark.
"Whaa-aa?" half-replied Bradford as he processed what Xever had said. Looking back over his new form, his eyes widened in embarrassment and a little humiliation when he saw that he was now, in fact, completely in the nude.
It wasn't so much that by itself that embarrassed and surprised him, he still had a decent enough cover of fur, and there wasn't anything really embarrassing that could be seen, anyway; it was mostly the fact that Xever had to point it out to him, and he hadn't noticed. As Dogpound, he had maintained some semblance of dignity with his stretched-out but otherwise fitting red pants, but then when he fell into the vat today they must have either fallen off of his now-slimmer form, or else dissolved away in the mutagen. And he hadn't noticed.
He was broken from his thoughts when he heard a snicker come from behind him, and he heard Xever say, "Apparently it has bothered you. Guess I was wrong." He smirked at Bradford as he turned to walk down the hall to Shredder's throne room for the night, seeing that his little plan to force some humility into his infuriating partner had been a success. As he walked through the triangle doors, he looked at Bradford and said in passing, "Don't worry, I'm sure you will get used to it. I had to." The last words ended on a vengeful note, before he had a last laugh at Bradford's expense, and disappeared into the room.
Rahzar growled lowly at him as Xever went into the throne room for the night. There was nothing he would like to do more than try out his new claws on his annoying partner, but he had bigger things to worry about, and, more than that, he was exhausted. Tracking Stockman and fighting, and double mutating and getting electrocuted by that little brat turtle had left him drained. Mumbling half-threats at the closed triangle door, he went back to his desolate room, slamming the door violently behind him and not bothering to turn on the lights. He could see fine in the dark room, anyway.
Letting out a large breath, he looked over at his shattered mirror. Time to get used to his new appearance, again. When his eyes met his reflection in the mirror, he almost jumped at the sight of himself. Rather than the black and red, but still somewhat human-looking, eyes he had gotten used to seeing, pure yellow, animalistic eyes seemed to leer at him from the mirror. He felt a strong urge to turn away from this threatening creature that stared at him, but something rose within him, a feeling that he would not be dominated, that he was the alpha here. He turned his gaze back to the mirror, this time avoiding his eyes, and looking at his new sharp teeth. He ran a clawed finger against his new fangs, relishing how sharp, dangerous and threatening they were. His gaze moved down his reflection, and he remembered his lack of clothes. He turned around to look at his dresser, where his human clothes still sat. They would probably be able to fit him better, now. But, strangely, he felt no need or desire to put them on. This lack of caring disturbed him; clothing, modesty, they were such human things, things he should have been feeling, and yet, he didn't. Bradford sank to the ground, wondering what this could mean. Was he losing pieces of his humanity? And, more shocking, he found himself wondering, did it really matter? He shook his head once, fiercely, clearing his head of any of those thoughts. He wanted to be human again. No matter how long he was a mutant, he would never stop wanting. Repeating this thought to himself, he stood up quickly and flung a had sharply at the ground. "I am Chris Bradford," he said to the room that was empty except for his reflection, "And I will be human again someday." He was taken by surprise, once again that night, when he heard a crack, and looked down to find five spikes stuck in his floor, forming cracks in the wood.
I couldn't have... he thought as he lifted his hand to his eyes, and gasped as he saw that the tips of his fingers, his claws, were gone. Mind reeling with excitement at this prospect, he wheeled around and looked at the opposite wall, before throwing his other hand out towards it. His eyes widened as he saw, and this time felt, the sharp claws fly from his fingers, embedding themselves in the wall. "Now that's...interesting." he said to himself. He couldn't help it as a wild, power-fueled smile made its way to his face. He felt strong, dangerous, like he had said before to that idiot turtle, he almost felt like he could feel the mutagen in his veins. And he liked it. He wheeled around to look back into the mirror, and this time those yellow animal eyes didn't threaten him, they made him feel powerful. Something changed slightly in him, it went unnoticed, but was there. Just for now, just right in this moment, despite what he had told himself before, for the first time he didn't care one bit about being human. The yellow animal eyes stared at him from the mirror, and he was not frightened of them one bit.
I told you that there would be awkwardness. Anyway, I know what I said about Rahzar, but I've gotten over that. In fact I see potential for this to get...interesting. Double mutation can do things to a mind, you know.
Also, tiny announcement, I have a fun new poll on my profile, that I made just because. It would be cool if you guys would check that out.
R&R Until next chapter?!