When Michelangelo was a child, he liked to look at the stars.
When he laid in his backyard, looking to the night sky, he wondered what could be out there. He figured there had to be aliens, that they weren't the only ones there, maybe the aliens were small things, no bigger than the palm of his hand. Or maybe they looked like large dogs that walked on two legs. Or just like him perhaps.
As he grew older, Michelangelo's daydreams about aliens dwindled but they still hung around. Curse of growing up and becoming a teenager, he supposed.
He remembered when the SYNKholes appeared. Technology seemed to boom overnight; holograms, spaceships, you name it, pretty much all of science fiction was now all at humanity's fingertips.
(It certainly made his weekly meetups with his skateboarding gang so much better, now that they had access to real hoverboards.)
Then reports of a computer virus named Black Mamba were floating around the world. It started small, relegated to just computers, but when the virus, along with legions of soldiers, began appearing in the flesh and ransacking cities and towns and demolishing buildings, Michelangelo knew there was a major problem.
And so, after a close call with his family and Black Mamba's soldiers, he packed up some of his belongings, said 'so long' to his parents and brother and walked though a POS into the SM Galaxy. He applied and got accepted into the KOSMO Training Academy and after many, many, many months of training, the Board picked him to be part of the recon team they were forming to investigate the Galaxy's biggest mystery:
The sudden disappearance of the original fighters against Black Mamba: Team aespa.
"Yo Mikey!"
Michelangelo looked up from the holoprojector glasses he held in his hands up to the screen that was embedded in his bedroom wall. The face of a teenaged boy showed on the screen with gangly features and long blond hair.
He grinned. "Sorry bro! Just lost in thought, y'know? Still can't really believe I'm in space, y'know?" He had just finished showing off some neat tech he got to use courtesy of the Academy to his little brother back on Earth, the glasses being part of it.
"I know dude! Like, I bet riding those space waves have got to be totally mondo-tastic!"
"Haven't gotten the chance yet, but when I do, you'll be the first to know, 'kay?"
His brother grinned and nodded, "Hey, have yo-"
"Michelangelo, report to the cockpit please." The ship's intercom system buzzed off; Donatello needed to take a look at it.
Michelangelo looked at the screen apologetically. "Sorry bro, I gotta go. Say hi to Mom and Dad for me. And Lars too."
"Will do. See ya Mike."
"Bye Jason."
He watched as Jason turned off the video call from his end before flinging the holoprojector glasses onto his bed and leaving his quarters.
Upon entering, Michelangelo found he was the last to arrive. He stopped next to Donatello's station and reached out to touch some of the shiny stuff on the navigation board before Donatello smacked his hand away.
"So why're we here? Rather, why am I here?" He turned his head at the rough voice, seeing Raphael with his arms crossed, looking very annoyed at Leonardo's direction.
The team leader spun his chair around to face the crew. "We're getting low on some supplies; Michelangelo, Raphael, I need you to do a supply run and stock up."
"Why do I have to go?" He countered.
"Four hands are better than two. Plus, I'm the leader."
The youngest saw Donatello roll his eyes at that. And heard a scoff from Raphael.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Everything," Leonardo smugly smirked, lifting his chin with a dare.
Michelangelo saw Raphael's face darken as he rolled his eyes. "I'm not going. Besides, you 'grounded' me 'cause my ship is still damaged from the last scout, 'member?"
Judging by the look on Leonardo's face, he clearly did not remember. Raphael now was the one gloating, obviously pleased with himself.
He looked at the leader and the fighter before raising his hand, "That's fine, I can go by myself."
All heads turned to him. "No!"
"If you go by yourself, you'll get lost."
Michelangelo grumpily pouted at Leonardo. "That was one time!"
"Still," Donatello added, shaking his head, "the risk is too great."
He sighed and smoothly tapped the navi board, elliciting a squawk from Donatello, then moved to the doorway. "Well then, who's coming with me?"
The leader looked at the others, Raphael swiftly avoiding eye contact before Donatello groaned and stood. "Fine! I'll go, I'm the only one able to right now anyway."
With a stern threat to the ones staying behind (mainly Raphael) to not touch anything at his station, he followed Donatello to his room so he could grab some essentials.
"C'mon D, this'll be fun!" Michelangelo crowed, Donatello trailing behind him, attaching his space bo-staff to the holster on his back.
"Sure." The taller boy sighed, hitching his side bag with who-knows-what in it across his heavy shoulders.
Story title from 'Black Mamba' by aespa
Chapter title from 'Astronaut' by Stray Kids
So… long story short, this started as a writing practice for my understanding of the SMCU in a completely different fandom in 2021. But a few problems:
1: I had no plot line or idea where it was going to go, just the 'first chapter' posted (now deleted). Began plotting, aespa's Girls came out, then finished plotting in confidence
2: writers block that lasted forever. Kept drafting
3: fell out of the Watcher fandom (which this story was in). Didn't want to drop this idea though so I kept drafting even though I had no motivation. Then a few months ago I thought "switch fandoms", latched TMNT2012 onto it and boom - inspiration
Since this was mostly drafted/written with another fandom in mind (& I didn't really wanna change the writing too much), the turtles may be a bit OOC. I did my best to match the old characters with the new ones as much as possible, but it may still pop up idk
Also never thought my first foray into writing TMNT would be with humanized turtles, but here we are lol
Enjoy!
P.S. happy 3rd anniversary aespa!
Extra note: anyone else obsessed with aespa's latest comeback