Title: Radio Silence
Day: Whumptober 2023 Day 7
Prompt: "I paced around for hours on empty; I jumped at the slightest sounds" Alleyway/Radio Silence/"Can you hear me?"
Fandom: TMNT 2003
Word Count: 1818
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: T
Characters: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello
Warning: NA
Summary: Mikey isn't answering his shell cell, which isn't like him, prompting his brothers to go look for him; Mikey has no idea what's going on, but the rain is making nice sounds and moving hurts and there are noises coming from his shell cell that he should probably pay attention to.
Notes: NA
Radio Silence
The Battleshell zoomed down the street, throwing up puddles of water onto the sidewalk, although no one inside of it cared much.
"Anything?" Leo asked from where he stood, gripping any handhold he could find as he scanned the streets.
"Nothin'," Raph said, holding the shell cell to his ear. "At least, nothing that sounds like Mikey."
"Do you hear anything at all?" Leo pressed, as if he hadn't asked that exact same question less than five minutes earlier.
Raph shook his head. "Nothin' except what I told ya before," he said. "Street noise, but nothin' distinct, and the sound of rain fallen." Raph frowned. "Not even a groan or a mutter."
"We've been out here for hours. Don, any luck?" Leo asked.
Don shook his head. "No. I keep trying to get a better read on the tracker in his shell cell, but it pops up for so short a time that I can't get a good fix on it."
"It ain't like Mikey to go radio silent for this long," Raph said. "Somethin's wrong."
"I know," Leo said, his grip tightening. "That's why we've got to keep looking."
' ' ' ' '
Something wasn't right. That much, Mikey knew. Something wasn't right. He didn't know anything else, but that one thing was the thing that he knew. That something wasn't right.
That singular thought circled around his head for a bit before his brain decided to try to entertain more than one thought at a time. Although what came next might not have really been thoughts, but more like recognizing things.
The first thing he recognized was that he was feeling some not-so-good things. His head felt like an egg that wasn't quite cracked all the way, his neck throbbed, and the shoulder that was under him felt like bees. Any attempt to move felt like fire being shot through him.
He wondered how he knew what bees felt like.
The next thing he recognized was that he was cold. It took him a little longer to realize why he was cold, and that was when he realized that it was raining. Little rain drops fell around him, going plop, plop, plop! and Mikey watched them, listened to them. They were slow at first, but they had gotten faster during the time he'd been laying here. But that was okay. He liked watching them. It was like his own, private entertainment.
It sounded like music.
It took him a second to realize that there were lights, too. Some were farther away than others, and some more colorful than others, but there were lights. He couldn't see most of them well. Some were soft, like the ones from above, but others were harsh, like the bright colored ones that were far away. One light was bright and really close, and Mikey found himself staring at it, even though it hurt his eyes.
That light was important.
It only occurred to him, then, that he could hear other things. Words, or at least, almost words. Some of them came from above, some of them came from the street, both of which were far away from him. But some of the words were coming from the bright light that was near him.
Shell Cell, some part of his brain supplied.
That was probably important.
The Shell Cell was probably important.
Mikey went to grab for it—and then gasped in pain.
The noise from the shell cell paused.
"Mikey? Mikey?"
Mikey blinked. What was that? Where was it coming from?
"Mikey, can you hear me?"
Oh. It was coming from the Shell Cell.
"Mikey? Mike! He's not answering!"
"Are you sure you heard him?"
"Yes!"
Wait. Those were his brothers. Where were they?
"Mike. Mike, I need you to listen to me."
Oh? That was a different brother.
"Mike. Mike, can you hear me? Mike, if you can, hear me, I need you to say something."
Mikey felt like he should probably do what this brother said, but he couldn't quite understand what he wanted him to do.
"Mike? Michelangelo!"
Oh. Oh, that was important, wasn't it? The name was important. Mike tried again to reach for the shell cell, but moving his arm hurt and he hissed in pain.
"Mike!"
He hadn't gotten to it. There were more sounds coming from the other end of the shell cell, and Mikey couldn't quite understand what was happening. All he knew was that there was pain, and he didn't know why.
"Mikey." There was a calm voice. "Mikey, can you hear me?"
Everything hurt. He didn't understand what his brothers wanted.
"Mikey. Mikey, I need you do something. It's important, okay?"
Mikey's breath hitched. He didn't want to do anything.
"I need you to get the shell cell, okay? There's a button that's going to be glowing. I need you to press it, okay? It's really important that you do that."
Mikey stared at the shell cell. A new light was on it. That was what his brother wanted him to press, wasn't it? But he'd have to move to do that, and he really didn't want to.
"Mikey? Mikey, please. It's important."
He wasn't sure why his brother wanted him to do it, but if his brother was asking him to, then it was important. He reached over to the shell cell, even though moving hurt, and pressed the button, even as white-hot pain lanced through him.
"Good job, Mikey!" one of his brothers said on the other side. "Mikey? Mikey? Can you hear me? Mikey!"
Mikey lost track of what was happening, only able to focus on the pain. He wasn't sure how long it took the pain to fade back and his other senses to start to come in again. He could feel the coolness of the rain again, hear the music of it dancing, see the lights, and hear the noises of voices and other things.
Some of the light was suddenly blocked, and then there were voices that seemed to come closer. He blinked, realizing that someone was moving closer to him as well, and it took a moment for his brain to register that they were his brothers.
"Mikey!"
"Mike!"
"Michelangelo!"
One of them reached out and touched his head, and he sucked in a breath as everything seemed to go white for a moment, until it all went black.
' ' ' ' '
"There he is!" Raph said, already heading for the back of the Battleshell.
"He doesn't look good, Don," Leo said. "He's not moving."
Don was backing the Battleshell into the alleyway that Mikey's tracking had led them too. "We knew something was wrong. Raph, grab the medkit, but don't move him until I get there."
"Right."
As soon as the Battleshell was stopped and blocking most of the alleyway, Raph and Leo jumped out, with Don not far behind them.
It only took them a moment to spot Mikey. He was laying on the ground of the alley below the fire escape, clearly not having moved since he fell to the ground—and it looked like he fell. Raph was the first to his side, and gently reached out to touch his brother, only to have Mikey stiffen and hiss in pain. Raph immediately panicked, looking to Don.
"Don't touch him!" Don said again, looking Mikey over visually. "Okay… okay, here's what we need to do."
The brothers got to work, following Don's directions.
' ' ' ' '
It was some hours later before Mikey woke up again. He was, as before, in some amount of pain, but things seemed much clearer. It did take him a second to realize that he was in their small infirmary, but when he did, he tried to move, to figure out what was going on. Which, it turned out, was a bad idea, because, one, it caused pain to flare up in him and, two, it turned out that he couldn't move his neck too much.
"Mikey? Mikey, are you with me? Can you hear me?"
A face appeared over him, and if it wasn't for the voice, it would have taken him a second to place which brother it was. Not, mind you, because of any problems with his sight, but because of the way the overhead light shined behind his brother's head.
"Donnie? Man, blind a guy with that light why don't you?"
He could see the outline of Don's grin, and his brother pulled back, adjusting the light as best he could. "Hey, Mikey! Glad to see you back with us! And, even though I never thought I'd say this, talking again."
"Talking again?" Mikey asked, carefully moving himself a bit so he could see Don better as his brother stood by his bedside.
Don nodded, going through a quick check up on Mike. "Yep. What do you remember about what happened?" he asked.
"Um…" Mike thought back a minute. "I had been out to run off some energy. It started to look like it was going to rain. I think it did start raining? I was on my way back when, um…" Mike's brow furrowed as he thought. "Something happened. I'm not sure what."
Don nodded. "That's normal. We're not entirely sure what happened either. But somehow, you fell, and gave yourself some pretty nasty trauma on the way down. When you didn't come home after a couple of hours and wouldn't answer your shell cell, we went looking for you and found you. You weren't doing so good." He smiled at Don. "It's not like you to go radio silent on your phone."
"Oh." Mikey paused, thinking. He could sort of remember falling, now that Don had prompted his memory. "I think… I think I scared some birds or something."
Don paused this time. "That… could actually make sense," he said, "given what we found on the roof later."
Mikey wondered about that but ignored it for the moment. "Am I gonna be alright?" he asked.
Don nodded. "In time. You busted up your shoulder pretty badly, and your left leg is pretty bruised up. The worse was your head and neck. You gave yourself a nasty concussion and wrenched your neck. But," Don smiled, "you will heal up. You're just gonna have to rest—and deal with Leo and Raph's mother-henning on top of Master Splinter's."
Mikey groaned. "Ugh, not the mother-henning. That's the worst!"
"Yeah, well, prepare yourself, because I'm about to call them," Don said with a grin.
He stepped out of the room, to let the others know that Mikey was awake, and Mikey sighed heavily. Still, when his brothers rushed into the room, quickly followed by their father, Leo and Raph practically tripping over each other to make sure that he was alright, Mikey couldn't help but smile.
He knew his brothers would always come for him—no matter if he was talking a mile a minute or gave them radio silence.
