Title: Dreams Fulfilled
Prompt: Childhood dream finally fulfilled
Fandom: TMNT 2003
Word Count: 2290
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: T
Characters: Michelangelo
Warning: NA
Summary: Mikey had always wanted to be seen. It was something he'd dreamed about since he was a child. But now, thanks to a supervillain, Mikey's getting the chance to live that dream out. After all, that was why he had created the Turtle Titan, right?
Notes: Takes place after canon
Dreams Fulfilled
Michelangelo had always had big dreams. He and Donatello had always been more prone to dreaming about what could be than Raphael or Leonardo. Their older brothers had always been a bit more practical in that sense. Long after those two had come to the realization that they'd never be accepted by the upper world, Mikey and Don had continued to dream.
In time, though, Don's dreams had taken on a different sense. He'd come to accept that they likely would never be accepted by the outside world, either, and he'd focused his dreams on his inventions and creations. And while Mikey had been forced through circumstances to accept that to a certain degree, he had never quite let go of his dreams. When his brothers had contented themselves to live their lives in the shadows, Mikey had never quite let go of that desire to be able to go out into the world openly.
He'd gotten a small taste of it at the Battle Nexus, when they'd fought for adoring crowds, when he heard his name cheered by people watching. He still puffed up and preened a bit when they'd go back, and people addressed him as "champion" and were excited to meet a two-time winner, who had not only won, but won during exceptional circumstances.
They'd all gotten at least some of that in the future, where no one looked twice at them, thinking they were just another alien species come to earth, and not mutated, time-traveling turtles. It had been nice to not get a second glance from people while still being able to do all of the things he'd always wanted to do.
But while that was nice, the Nexus wasn't home, and neither was the future. It wasn't where Mikey wanted that attention. No, he'd always wanted it back where he lived, in the world he knew best, in the place he always longed to belong. He'd struggled with the desire to be acknowledged for the good he did versus the need to stay hidden throughout the years, always trying to find either a balance or a definite reason to go one way or another. He'd never really found anything that tipped the scales one way or another.
At least, not until now.
"It's Turtle Titan!"
"Look! Turtle Titan!"
Mikey waved at the people below as he swung across the rooftops in broad daylight, not bothering to hide himself. It was strange. It was freeing in a way, but also made him incredible itchy in a way that he couldn't explain. It was like when he'd set up a prank, but it felt like someone was watching him and knew. Or like before a fight, when you knew someone was watching you.
But at the same time, he was out, in daylight, and people weren't running in horror. They weren't screaming at the mere sight of him. Even when he was on street level, people didn't run away. There was something exciting about it.
It had all started a month ago. An alpha level super villain had appeared in the city, and the Justice Force had been called in, in force. Everyone was called to active duty, including Turtle Titan. His family had been understandably worried, and his brothers had even gone, too, although they had dealt with more of the side threats, understanding that the main villain was something that was beyond their skills.
Mikey, though, had been under the command of the Justice Force, and it had been kind of weird not to be with his brothers during a crisis like this. Still, he'd done his best, even though he definitely wasn't a heavy hitter, doing whatever he could to help while heroes like Silver Sentry and The Green Mantle and Chrysalis had tried to stop the villain from destroying more of the city then he already had.
And yet, Mikey had ended up facing off against the villain.
Silver Sentry had gone down. Ananda's tech had been destroyed. Nano had been obliterated to the point that his nanites were trying to construct more of themselves. The Green Mantle had taken heavy damage. Chrysalis was injured. Raptarr's wing was broken. Tsunami was out cold. Nobody was trapped. Most of the minor heroes had been injured or were unable to go on. And it had suddenly been Mikey, Turtle Titan, and his lack of superpowers facing down this alpha level threat.
And so, he did.
Mikey knew that most of the time he didn't fight as hard or as well as he could. He relied on others or didn't put his all into things. But at that moment? At that moment he'd focused his everything into not only surviving this encounter, but on taking the threat down.
The battle had been fast-paced, brutal, and more than a bit dangerous. Mikey'd lost part of his cape, had other parts of his costume burned or ripped away, and been bloodied up within a couple of minutes of the fight. But he'd managed to keep the villain's attention on him, allowing for the others to try to fall back and regroup.
And then one of the villain's energy attacks had headed towards an area Mikey had seen the civilians taking cover in. Resolve had filled him, and he'd thrown himself in between the deadly energy barrage and the building. He'd heard his name screamed out, heard the villain cackle as the attack hit, and then heard the shock as the villain realized that Mikey wasn't dead.
Mike had stood there, his shield now a useless smoking thing, his costume in tatters, but glowing with an orange energy, sweeping circles and curves glowing on his skin.
"I don't think so," he'd said, resolve filling him, his glow increasing as he stepped towards the villain. "You're not gonna hurt anyone again."
The villain had aimed another attack at him, but Mikey had just taken the brunt of it and rushed the villain at impossible speed, nunchucks out and putting all of his skill and energy into stopping this man who had already destroyed so much.
He'd been told later that he was like a glowing orange blur, moving impossibly fast and making impossibly strong strikes. The villain had been driven back as Mikey had attacked again and again, giving no quarter to him, until, finally, the villain had gone down, unconscious and beaten. Mikey's power had flickered out then, and he had collapsed to his hands and knees, utterly and completely spent. He'd only managed to look up again when he heard cheers ringing out around him, and he had looked up to see citizens of the city coming out of hiding, staring at him, and cheering. He had tensed up, looking for some way to try and hide, but before he could do that, he'd realized that the citizens were chanting his name—they were chanting Turtle Titan.
Mikey hadn't known what to do, almost instinctively trying to hide from the cameras that were around, lifting a hand to shield his face, as if that would do any good. Things had blurred after that. Sentry had suddenly appeared at his side, tugging him up and away, getting him to a waiting ambulance. He'd panicked at first, until, suddenly, Don had been there with him, talking calmly to the paramedics that were in there. He'd been absolutely drained, but he'd only relaxed when he'd heard Leo and Raph's voices on the other end of a shell cell call Don had made just for him.
He'd spent a couple of weeks recovering and, honestly, hiding. He'd drained most of his energy and hadn't realized just how injured he had been. He'd had to take time to recover, and that had ended up being a good thing. He hadn't realized just how public the whole fight had been, and he'd almost been afraid that he'd disappointed his father, but Splinter had just been grateful that Mikey was alright and proud of him for protecting so many people.
Letters, fan mail, and demands for interviews for the Turtle Titan had come pouring into Justice Force headquarters, almost overwhelming in their amount. Zippy Lad had a lot of them delivered to April and Casey's, the couple bringing them down to the lair later. They'd all sat around and gone through them, and Mikey had been touched by the amount of people that were thanking him for saving them that day, or the letters from people saying that they looked up to him.
He hadn't known what to do about it.
But Splinter had gotten up, cupped Mikey's cheeks in his hand, and told his son that while he should never forget his origins, that he should embrace this.
And so, Mikey was.
He landed in front of a convenience store, letting go of the line he'd been using to swing around the buildings. Almost immediately a few people came up to him, asking for autographs, or wanting to ask him questions. Mikey signed things and tried to answer some of the questions, before waving his fans off, and turning to go inside. There were murmurs as he entered, and he waved at a few people as he made his way to the counter.
"Uh, excuse me," he said with a smile at the woman behind the counter.
She looked up in shock. "Turtle Titan!"
He nodded and slid a letter across the counter. "Yep! It's me! I got this letter—I think it's from your son, maybe—and I was wondering if I could just talk to him for a moment?" Mikey grinned. "I have something for him."
The woman looked startled for a moment, and then nodded. "Yes! Yes, of course! One moment."
She turned and called for someone else to mind the counter, and then gestured for Mikey to follow her. He did, through a back room and up some stairs that led to an apartment that was above the store.
"Please pardon the mess," she apologized.
Mikey grinned and waved her off. "Nah, don't worry about it. My bros and I used to make much worse messes. Actually, we still do sometimes."
The woman seemed to relax a little at that and chuckled a bit. Stopping in front of a door, she knocked on it, calling out. "Ayan? Ayan, there's someone here to see you." She waited a second, and then opened the door.
"Mom, I'm—" the boy inside, maybe twelve or so, stopped talking as he looked up, eyes widening as he took in Mikey. "T-Turtle Titan?"
Mikey grinned and waved. "Heya! Got your letter! Gotta say, your art was amazing! Hope you don't mind me dropping by."
The boy shook his head, and immediately dropped the pencil he'd been holding in his two fingers and shook his head. "No! Not at all! Wow! No one is going to believe this!"
His mother smiled. "I'll be down the hall, if you need anything."
"Sure thing, ma'am!" Mikey said, before turning back to the boy. "Hey, watcha working on? That looks cool!"
The boy suddenly looked a little shy and hid his hands behind his back. "This? It's um, it's nothing. It's not even good."
"Not even good?" Mikey looked over the drawing on the table. "Dude, this is great!"
"Yeah, well, I could probably do better if…" he trailed off, although glanced down at hands.
Mikey nudged him. "Hey—don't be like that." He wiggled his hands in front of Ayan's face. "Us three-digit guys gotta stick together. Show people that five fingers don't mean nothing."
Ayan grinned reached up with his own three fingered hands—a birth defect, his letter had said—and pushed Mikey's away. "I guess so," he said.
"Pfft, guess nothing. From one artist to another, I know it!" Mikey said. "Oh! Hey, that reminds me—I brought my sketchbook, wanna see it?"
Ayan lit up. "Yeah!"
It was about a half an hour later when Mikey left, Ayan's mother taking him back down the stairs and to the backroom of the shop. She stopped him, though, before they went to the store.
"Thank you," she said. "He's… he's very insecure about his hands, no matter how hard we've tried to not let it affect things."
Mikey just smiled at her. "It's no problem. Believe me, I get how being different can be hard. My whole family is different. But I think you're doing great. Ayan really seems like a good kid."
She smiled back at him. "Thank you. For everything."
Mikey left the store with a small bag of food, and headed back up to the rooftops, waving when he saw Ayan watching through the window of his room. He swung away, a red-bean bun half stuffed in his mouth, and listened to people call out to him as he traveled, a contented feeling forming in his heart.
Yeah, he'd always wanted to be able to be out here, among people, without anyone being scared or afraid of him, and without feeling like he needed to hide. But more than that, he was realizing, his childhood dream hadn't been just to be able to be seen, but it had been to help people. Superheroes were just the biggest, flashiest way to do it. And now he could do that—in the shadows as a ninja, sure, but also out in the open, where he could not only help people without having to worry about being seen, but also where he could talk to people that he wouldn't have been able to before. People like Ayan.
And somehow, being able to reach out to and help the people around him, that felt like everything he had ever dreamed of as a child and more.